Bisan Owda

Biography

Bisan Owda (born 1997) is a Palestinian journalist, filmmaker, and digital storyteller from Gaza who became one of the most decorated and widely watched chroniclers of the 2023-2024 Gaza war. Her video dispatches, each opening with the now-iconic line 'It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm still alive,' turned a personal survival diary into globally recognized journalism. A filmmaker and content creator before the war, Owda began documenting daily life under bombardment from its earliest days, posting first-person video reports that combined raw immediacy with narrative craft. Her dispatches were viewed more than 40 million times across platforms and were credited with humanizing Gaza for an international audience by putting a recognizable face to the daily realities of the conflict. Her work received exceptional formal recognition for a digital, social-media-native journalist. In 2024 she won a Peabody Award in the News category for her Al Jazeera series It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive, and at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards she won Outstanding Hard News Feature for the same series, produced with AJ+, Al Jazeera's digital platform. Owda also shared Amnesty International Australia's inaugural Human Rights Defender Award alongside other Palestinian journalists, recognized for fearless reporting, innovative use of social media and citizen journalism, and the ability to inspire action for justice. Her recognition placed her among a new wave of journalists whose primary medium is the short-form video and whose newsroom is the smartphone. Through sustained personal risk and a distinctive voice, Owda helped redefine what war reporting looks like in the social-media age, demonstrating that a young Palestinian woman with a camera and a phone could reach and move a global audience on a scale rivaling major news organizations, and earn the profession's highest honors in the process.

Why This Person Matters

A Gaza video journalist whose first-person war dispatches won a Peabody and an Emmy, redefining what acclaimed war reporting looks like in the social-media age.

Historical Context

Bisan Owda was born in Gaza City in 1997 and worked as a filmmaker and content creator before the October 2023 war turned her camera into an instrument of frontline journalism. With international reporters shut out of Gaza, she began posting first-person video dispatches from the war's earliest days, each opening with the line that became her signature: 'It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm still alive.' Her work emerged from the specific reality of a young Palestinian woman surviving and documenting bombardment with only a smartphone. That survival diary became a globally recognized form of war reporting.

Historical Context

1. 1997 — Born in Gaza City, Israeli-occupied Gaza

Legacy & Influence

Owda's dispatches were viewed more than 40 million times and earned honors rare for a social-media-native journalist: a 2024 Peabody Award in the News category for her Al Jazeera series, and an Outstanding Hard News Feature Emmy for the same AJ+ series. She also shared Amnesty International Australia's inaugural Human Rights Defender Award. By winning the profession's highest honors with a phone and a distinctive voice, she helped redefine what acclaimed war reporting looks like, proving a young Palestinian woman could move a global audience on a scale rivaling major newsrooms. She stands among the new wave whose newsroom is the smartphone.

Topics & Themes

• Contemporary
• Gaza

References & Sources

1. Bisan Owda — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisan_Owda
2. It's Bisan from Gaza - Peabody Awards — https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/its-bisan-from-gaza/