Latest news with #BisanOwda
Sinar Daily
11-06-2025
- Sinar Daily
Palestinian journalist unfollow accounts celebrating life amid Gaza siege
'Forgive me, but I am unable to see your posts and your luxurious and empty lives at the same time." Prominent Palestinian journalist and activist Bisan Owda has announced she will unfollow social media users who continue to share celebratory or lifestyle content while Gaza continues to suffer under Israeli bombardment. - Photo: Instagram @wizard_bisan1 SHAH ALAM – Prominent Palestinian journalist and activist Bisan Owda has announced she will unfollow social media users who continue to share celebratory or lifestyle content while Gaza continues to suffer under Israeli bombardment. In an Instagram Story posted on Thursday, Owda, widely known by her online moniker Wizard Bisan said she would no longer engage with posts about food, holidays, clothing or leisure, regardless of the user's religion or nationality. 'Forgive me, but I am unable to see your posts and your luxurious and empty lives at the same time. 'We may live in different worlds, and this step may be late, but neither me nor my people are able to see your food and your lives and not curse you and hate you. 'So that we do not see you as insignificant and ignorant, I am going to unfollow you and not see your Honolulu life,' the caption read. She added that if she and her people survive the ongoing genocide, rebuild their lives and experience joy again, only then will she consider re-engaging with such content. "This is the least I can do for my family and my people," she wrote. Palestinians prepare to carry an injured person, pulled from the rubble of a home that was targeted in an Israeli strike in the Saftawi neighbourhood, west of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on June 9, 2025. Photo by Bashar Taleb/AFP Owda has become one of the most recognised voices documenting the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. Since Oct 7, 2023, she has regularly reported from the ground, providing firsthand accounts of the destruction, displacement and death caused by Israel's military campaign. At just 20-something, Owda has amassed more than four million Instagram followers and continues to reach millions across platforms like TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). Her social media presence has grown significantly since the start of the war, often opening her videos with the haunting phrase, "I'm still alive." Her reporting has covered key atrocities, including the Al-Shifa ambulance strike, the Flour Massacre in February 2024 and mass displacements to Khan Younis. She herself has been displaced multiple times, including when her home and filming equipment in Gaza City's Rimal district were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. Media report, The New Arab reported, in recognition of her brave journalism, Owda was awarded an Emmy in Sep 2024 for her documentary "I'm Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive." The report, produced in collaboration with AJ+, won the award for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form at the 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, hosted by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).
The National
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Gaza journalist confirms family deaths in Israeli strikes
Bisan Owda, better known as Wizard Bisan, has provided regular updates from the ground in Gaza since Israel ramped up its violence in the territory following October 7, and confirmed that three of her cousins were killed after Israeli forces bombed a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City on Monday. In an update posted to Facebook and Instagram, she said: 'Today, the Israeli army bombed a very crowded school, killing 40 people — three of them were my cousins. Children among them. READ MORE: Israeli strikes kill 46 people in Gaza as shelter bombed 'The rest of the family are injured, severely injured, with severe burns [and] not enough medicine, very hot weather and no hospitals.' Owda broke down on camera as she recalled her efforts to find doctors, nurses and medical supplies in the field hospital tents. In a harrowing moment, she stated that her family were stuck in a burning classroom for '43 minutes' after the blast led to the room's metal door becoming jammed. READ MORE: Anas Sarwar slams 'poisonous man' Nigel Farage amid 'racist' Reform UK ad row The journalist sobbed whilst condemning the Israeli government for the continuation of the genocide, adding: 'I lost three cousins. Why? Because of nothing. Nothing. Because of the brutal, extreme, corrupt colony of Israel. 'They are carrying on this genocide only for political and individual interests. They are having fun.' She also accused Israeli forces of using intel to track the locations of Palestinians and being 'aware' of children being killed in the repeated strikes. European and American government officials were also slammed in the five-minute clip for focussing more on 'commercial agreements' with Israel, enabling the blocking of aid trucks and 'benefiting from the genocide from A-Z'. The update from Owda follows reports of the school bombing which killed at least 46 people in the north of the Gaza Strip, with the Israeli military blaming Hamas for the strikes for their use of the school as an intelligence gathering centre. Since October 7, Israel has killed around 54,000 Palestinians — more than half being women and children — according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and over half of the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas have now been released, with Israeli forces recovering the remains of several more.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
There Has Never Been A Deadlier Time To Be A Journalist, Watchdog Report Says
A new press freedom report concludes that 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists around the world, driven largely by Israel's ongoing attacks against Palestinian members of the media. At least 124 journalists were killed internationally last year, 70% of which Israel is responsible for, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' 2024 Killed Report first obtained by HuffPost. That total surpasses CPJ's previous record high of 113 killed in 2007, when the Iraq War made up nearly half the journalist casualties. 'The number of conflicts globally – whether political, criminal or military in nature – has doubled in the past five years, and this is reflected in the high number of deaths of journalists in nations such as Sudan, Pakistan and Myanmar,' the report said. 'But the toll of conflict on the press is most glaring in the unprecedented number of journalists and media workers killed in the Israel-Gaza war, 85 in 2024, and 78 in 2023.' The numbers are even higher when attributed to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, which recorded 102 journalists killed in 2023 and 91 in 2024. This does not include journalists who are imprisoned, nor those who are alive but wounded. 'The targeting of journalists' families, the destruction of homes, and the use of live ammunition reflect a deliberate strategy to instill fear and silence those reporting the truth,' the syndicate said in its report last month. 'These actions defy international conventions and norms, with no precedent for such systematic violence against journalists anywhere else in the world.' A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Force did not immediately respond to HuffPost's request for comment. The context around the disproportionate attacks on the press in Gaza includes that virtually all on-the-ground reporting came from local journalists, who try balancing survival and displacement with covering the war. Gaza journalists like Bisan Owda and Hind Khoudary have spoken about the difficulty in trying to report when there is no food, shelter or health care. 'They were living the war – which we've seen has been devastating for Gaza – at the same time they were reporting,' CPJ program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna told HuffPost, adding that Palestinians journalists would also often face smear campaigns by Israeli authorities, who would attempt to paint the press as terrorists. 'So we documented the cases of journalists being killed while they were directly reporting, but also when they were getting some rest near a hospital that was bombed. Getting some flour, and that was bombed. When they were displaced, when they were enduring all the circumstances of the civilian population,' he continued. 'So them, as civilians, should be protected. And they haven't been protected.' Martínez de la Serna also highlighted the disproportionate killing of freelance journalists, who often do the same reporting with fewer resources and higher safety risk. Freelancers made up more than a third of all killings in 2024, and 31 cases of freelancers killed were Palestinians in Gaza. 'Many Gaza journalists became freelancers after their outlets were destroyed, their coverage proving crucial for global media outlets because Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Strip except on tightly controlled visits led by the military,' the CPJ report said. While the press freedom and safety during Israel's military campaign in Gaza has alarmed the world, CPJ stressed that journalists everywhere are facing an increase in violence due to global conflict, political unrest and distrust of the media. Sudan has seen little international attention on its civil war that has killed thousands, including journalists. 'Attacking journalists reverberates across the profession. Only one attack needs to be taken very seriously. Justice needs to be pursued and the attack needs to be condemned,' Martínez de la Serna said. 'And the opposite is indulging in selective rhetoric that vilifies journalism when you disagree just with the outcome of that reporting or on anything else. 'That's a threat that contributes to this environment that is in many countries around the world, and that is in the U.S. as well.'
