O little light in me, don’t die.”

In the first episode of Falasteeniya — a new podcast series spotlighting the voices, expertise, and lived experiences of Palestinian women — host Hala Hanina welcomes Somaia Abunada to the Palestine Deep Dive studio.

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.

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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. 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.