Warrior Woman: Displaced Dispatches from Gaza Audio

warriorwomangaza.substack.com

A podcast bearing witness to the survival, art, and humanity of Noura al Aqaad and her family in Gaza, where every subscription goes directly to sustaining them and paying medical fees. warriorwomangaza.substack.com

Episodes

  1. Jun 22

    The Theatre of the Absurd: Gaza's Carefully Choreographed Suppression on the World Stage

    The Theatre of the Absurd: Gaza's Carefully Choreographed Suppression on the World Stage Part Three of the Digital Siege series — Warrior Woman Gaza In this episode we close our Digital Siege trilogy by pulling back the curtain on the second wall of suppression: the one built not from algorithms and platform infrastructure, but from editorial trips, intelligence veterans, journalism fellowships, and government-funded propaganda programmes. We open with Noura al Aqaad, displaced in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis, who has no option to look away, and ask why the rest of the world does. We document the systematic killing of Palestinian journalists, including Hossam Shabat, killed at 23 (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/24/al-jazeera-journalist-killed-in-israeli-strikes-in-northern-gaza), and Hassan Aslih, targeted twice: first in a journalists' tent, then in his hospital bed while recovering from the first attempt (https://mondoweiss.net/2025/05/goodbye-hassan-you-knew-they-were-going-to-kill-you/). We document Amal Khalil, who bled out while rescuers waited two hours for IDF permission to reach her (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/06/07/wounded-lebanese-journalist-died-rescuers-waited-israels-permission-save-her/). As of June 2026, at least 262 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, making this the deadliest conflict for journalists since records began (https://cpj.org/2023/10/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/). We then present the data: the same pro-Israel bias, simultaneously, in the United States (https://fair.org/home/study-finds-us-media-coverage-of-gaza-heavily-favors-israel/), the United Kingdom (https://cfmm.org.uk/bbc-on-gaza-israel-one-story-double-standards/), Canada (https://breachmedia.ca/palestinian-deaths-canadian-newspapers-data/), Australia (https://theconversation.com/at-a-time-when-journalism-needs-to-be-at-its-strongest-an-open-letter-on-the-israel-hamas-war-has-left-the-profession-diminished-218596), Germany (https://jacobin.com/2025/08/germany-media-bias-gaza-israel), and France (https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241127-france-says-netanyahu-has-immunity-from-icc-warrants). The same passive voice. The same missing perpetrators. The same word, genocide, absent from style guides at the NYT, the BBC, and the CBC, despite its use by the UN, the ICJ (https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192), the ICC (https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-of-israels-challenges), and the world's foremost genocide scholars (https://www.genocidescholars.org/news/iags-resolution-on-gaza). Then we follow the architecture behind it. Unit 8200 veterans writing award-winning news at Axios and CNN (https://www.mintpressnews.com/revealed-israel-unit-8200-spies-american-media/288457/). The ELNET lobby funding editorial trips that shaped editors who then fired the journalists who signed open letters asking for fairness (https://www.declassifieduk.org/lobby-group-taking-journalists-on-propaganda-tours-of-israel/). The Karsh Fellowship, founded explicitly as a response to an "information war," training the next generation of reporters inside the same institutions (https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/karsh-fellowship-legacy-journalists-mentors-information-war-israel-new-york-times-cnn). Pegasus spyware, built by Unit 8200 alumni, deployed against journalists in over 50 countries (https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/26/human-rights-watch-among-pegasus-spyware-targets). And a leaked Israeli Defense Ministry document confirming a state-run programme graduating 320 influence experts per year, with a three-quarter-billion-dollar propaganda budget (https://www.972mag.com/leaked-idf-propaganda-israel-intelligence/). We close on the institutional permission layer: bake sales called antisemitism (https://euobserver.com/eu-and-the-world/ar349d1cbc), a word meaning uprising, getting people arrested (https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/uk-police-arrest-pro-palestinian-111554810.html), musicians investigated for performing (https://ca.billboard.com/music/music-news/bob-vylan-kneecap-glastonbury-police-investigation-2025-1236011607/). And on Noura, whose digital presence is suppressed by the same apparatus documented throughout this series. The show must end. No round of applause. Pull back the curtain. Read the full article with all sources at warriorwomangaza.substack.com Parts One and Two of the Digital Siege series: Part One: https://warriorwomangaza.substack.com/p/surviving-the-next-chapter-of-the Part Two: https://warriorwomangaza.substack.com/p/the-web-of-silence This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit warriorwomangaza.substack.com/subscribe

    30 min
  2. A message from Noura

    Jun 18

    A message from Noura

    Substack This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit warriorwomangaza.substack.com/subscribe

    1 min

  3. Jun 11

    Surviving the Next Chapter of the Digital Siege on Gaza

    “Yes, I was forced to share my suffering publicly. But why? Come with me and let’s understand.” — Noura Al-Aqaad On the morning of May 31st, 2026, Noura Al-Aqaad woke up to messages telling her that the link in her Instagram bio had disappeared. She could still see it. Nobody else could. The same day, a prompt appeared on her GoFundMe campaign redirecting potential donors toward an NGO with 150 staff for the entire Middle East. By the end of the week, her Threads account had been permanently deleted by an automated system. No human made that decision. This episode documents what happened, why it matters, and how platforms are actively making it harder for Palestinian families to receive direct support — while making it easier for some communities than others. In this episode: • The shadowban that hid Noura’s donation link from her followers • GoFundMe’s Anera redirect — what it is, why it appeared selectively on Palestinian campaigns, and why it matters • The Tumbler Ridge comparison — how GoFundMe treats different communities differently • Three screenshots, one word changed each time, showing how GoFundMe’s AI chatbot Ray responds differently This is Part One of a two-part series. Part Two — The Infrastructure of Silence — documents the network behind the suppression. Noura Al-Aqaad is a Palestinian mother, poet, and warrior living in a displacement tent in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis with her husband Sameh and their four children. This newsletter exists because she asked for it. Read the full article: warriorwomangaza.substack.com/p/surviving-digital-siege-gaza Support the Al-Aqaad family directly: chuffed.org/project/144536 Warrior Woman Gaza is written for Noura, who is living through everything described here. If this episode reached you, please share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit warriorwomangaza.substack.com/subscribe

    24 min

  4. Jun 8

    They Were Smiling: Aisha and Huda Al Aqaad Are Still Missing

    In December 2023, Israeli soldiers photographed themselves smiling beside two blindfolded Palestinian women they had just taken into military custody. The women were holding hands. Their names are Aisha Bakr Ahmed Al-Aqaad, 77, and her daughter, Huda Mohammed Assouli Al-Aqaad, 41. The photograph resurfaced two years later. By then, the Al-Aqaad family had spent those two years believing they were dead. They still don't know where they are. This episode tells the story behind the photograph, as told by Noura Al-Aqaad, Aisha's niece, who lived next door. It draws on testimony provided directly to Warrior Woman Gaza, the Sky News investigation, and legal documentation from the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN). Between 14,000 and 15,000 people remain unaccounted for in Gaza. Aisha and Huda are two of them. Read the full article at warriorwomangaza.substack.com and support the Al-Aqaad family directly at chuffed.org/project/144536 Warrior Woman Gaza is a newsletter documenting the life, words, and survival of Noura Al-Aqaad and her family in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Every subscription and donation supports them directly. If this episode reached you, please share it. The names in this story deserve to be said out loud and kept. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit warriorwomangaza.substack.com/subscribe

    20 min
  5. They Call It a Ceasefire, Let's Call It What It Is

    Jun 5

    They Call It a Ceasefire, Let's Call It What It Is

    On Monday May 25th at 1:49pm, Noura Al-Aqaad was 250 meters from Ghaith Camp in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis, when her six-year-old son Siraj came running and screaming. He had a word for it: ithnan, ithnan. Two, two. He meant two rockets. A six-year-old girl named Mennatallah Abu Libda was playing at the door of her family's tent nearby. She was the same age as Siraj. She was killed. Since the US-brokered ceasefire was announced in October 2025, Gaza's Government Media Office has documented a minimum of 3,005 Israeli violations. At least 922 Palestinians have been killed. At least 230 of them were children. This episode is Noura Al-Aqaad's account of what the ceasefire looks like from inside a displacement tent in Al-Mawasi — the area Israel designated as a humanitarian safe zone and the UN formally documented as unsafe. It draws on testimony provided directly to Warrior Woman Gaza, alongside verified reporting on ceasefire violations, the political context behind the escalation, and the pattern of Israeli violations across both Gaza and Lebanon. There is no ceasefire. Noura has a word for it, too. Read the full article at warriorwomangaza.substack.com and support the Al-Aqaad family directly at chuffed.org/project/144536 Warrior Woman Gaza is a newsletter documenting the life, words, and survival of Noura Al-Aqaad and her family in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Every subscription and donation supports them directly. If this episode reached you, please share it. The names in this story deserve to be said out loud and kept. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit warriorwomangaza.substack.com/subscribe

    18 min
  6. "Foretold and Later Confirmed": the UN's OHCHR Report on Occupied Palestine

    Jun 5

    "Foretold and Later Confirmed": the UN's OHCHR Report on Occupied Palestine

    In August 2025, Alessia filed a complaint with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on behalf of Noura Al-Aqaad and her family in Khan Younis, Gaza. The complaint was closed in ten days. Nine months later, the OHCHR published a 74-page report confirming everything she had documented. This episode is about what it means to seek accountability through international mechanisms for a family the system was not designed to protect, and what happens when those mechanisms fail on schedule. Noura Al-Aqaad has lived in a displacement tent in Al-Mawasi since her last evacuation. Her husband, Sameh, has been on a WHO medical evacuation list for over a year. Her children have never known a single day of this war to end. The UN confirmed all of it. Nothing changed. This episode draws on the OHCHR complaint filed, the May 2026 OHCHR report on the situation in Gaza, and testimony from Noura Al-Aqaad. Read the full article at warriorwomangaza.substack.com and support the Al-Aqaad family directly at chuffed.org/project/144536 Warrior Woman Gaza is a newsletter documenting the life, words, and survival of Noura Al-Aqaad and her family in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Every subscription and donation supports them directly. If this episode reached you, please share it. The names in this story deserve to be said out loud and kept. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit warriorwomangaza.substack.com/subscribe

    12 min
  • 6 Episodes

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A podcast bearing witness to the survival, art, and humanity of Noura al Aqaad and her family in Gaza, where every subscription goes directly to sustaining them and paying medical fees. warriorwomangaza.substack.com

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