Issam Adwan, a researcher and journalist from Gaza, joins Hala Hanina, to discuss Israel’s targeting of Palestinians journalists, the smear campaigns they face, as well as, being the first to investigate the case of Hind Rajab.

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Issam Adwan is a Palestinian researcher whose work bridges international media, grassroots activism, and academic inquiry. He has worked as a journalist for global outlets including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera English, providing frontline coverage and investigative reports from Gaza during times of crisis. His leadership experience includes serving as manager of We Are Not Numbers, where he represented Palestinian voices internationally, and teaching political translation at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.

Hala Hanina is a social and political activist from Gaza. She is currently completing a PhD in politics and sociology, focusing on Palestinian women at the intersection of colonial and patriarchal violence.

Hala Hanina also hears Abubaker’s dismay at the BBC’s misreporting on Gaza and the urgent need for military intervention to stop the genocide.

This is the third episode of Falasteeniya, a new podcast series exploring the gendered dynamic of Israel’s oppression hosted by Hala Hanina, a Palestinian social and political activist from Gaza.

Abubaker Abed is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, now studying in Ireland. Despite being an aspiring football journalist, he became an accidental war correspondent when Israel’s genocide in Gaza turned everyday life into a frontline. His reporting captures both the brutality of Israel’s onslaught and the endurance of those who survive it.

In the second episode of Falasteeniya, a new podcast series spotlighting the voices, expertise, and lived experiences of Palestinian women and exploring the gendered dynamic of Israel's oppression, host Hala Hanina welcomes Journalist and Emmy award-winner Shrouq Al Aila speaking directly from inside the Gaza Strip.

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A witness, survivor, and documenter of Israel’s genocide on Gaza, Shrouq Al Aila is a Palestinian journalist, producer, and researcher who has been reporting from inside Gaza throughout the ongoing genocide.

She is the director of Ain Media, an independent production company co-founded by her husband, Rushdi Sarraj, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on October 22, 2023.

In this episode, Shrouq speaks about her return to Gaza after the genocide began, the day she lost her husband, the assassination of her colleagues at Ain Media, and the daily toll of famine, grief, and survival.

She also reflects on the Western feminist silence around the femicide in Gaza, and the Emmy award she recently received for her work, a recognition dedicated to those who gave everything to tell the truth. “Rushdi gave me a press vest, thinking it would protect me. But here, that vest marks you as a target.”

Despite repeated displacement, personal loss, and ongoing danger, Shrouq has remained in Gaza to continue reporting the truth from the ground. Her work not only exposes Israel’s war crimes and the Western media’s complicity but also stands as a frontline act of resistance, ensuring that Palestinian stories are told, and that memory is not erased.

Rushdi Sarraj (1992 – 2023) was a 31-year-old Palestinian filmmaker and co-founder of Ain Media – a Gaza-based Independent media production company.

Hala Hanina is a social and political activist from Gaza. She is currently completing a PhD in politics and sociology, focusing on Palestinian women at the intersection of colonial and patriarchal violence.

A witness and survivor to Israel’s genocide on Gaza, Somaia Abunada remembers the life and legacy of her older sister Heba Abunada — poet, scientist, and beloved daughter of Gaza — who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on October 20, 2023.

Heba Abunada (1991–2023) was more than a poet. She was Gaza’s radiance — a biochemist, a writer, and a visionary thinker whose words carried generations of Palestinian pain and resistance. Her poems traced the delicate threads between loss and longing, life and liberation. She wrote as if Gaza breathed through her.

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But Heba’s life was cut short in the beginning of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. She was killed while on her prayer mat, during one of the most violent days of the genocide. Her final words on Facebook that morning read: “In Gaza, we are with God, either as martyrs or as witnesses to liberation, and all of us are waiting to see which we will be.”

Somaia Abunada is the younger sister of Heba. She is a former Fulbright language teaching assistant, she holds a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Translation Studies. Somaia is currently pursuing a second Master’s degree in Applied Intercultural Communication at Trinity College Dublin. She has worked as an English teacher with the Irish Red Cross, social media coordinator with We Are Not Numbers, as a writer, and an activities coordinator and translator.

Hala Hanina is a social and political activist from Gaza. She is currently completing a PhD in politics and sociology which focuses on Palestinian women at the intersection of colonial and patriarchal violence.