Heba Abu Nada

Heba Abu Nada was a Palestinian poet, novelist, and educator born on June 24, 1991, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to a Palestinian refugee family from Beit Jirja. She grew up in the Gaza Strip and was a prominent literary figure in the Palestinian community. Abu Nada held a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the Islamic University of Gaza and a master's degree in clinical nutrition from Al-Azhar University in Gaza. Her literary contributions include the novel Oxygen is Not for the Dead, which won second place in the Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity in 2017. Abu Nada's works often reflected the harsh realities of Palestinian life under occupation and the resilience of the Palestinian spirit. She was known for her poignant and evocative poetry, which captured the struggles and hopes of her people. Tragically, Heba Abu Nada was killed in an Israeli airstrike on October 20, 2023, while at her home in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Her death was a significant loss to the Palestinian literary community and was widely mourned. In her final posts on social media, she poignantly described the nights of Gaza, lit only by rockets and the light of martyrs, embodying the spirit of resilience even in the face of profound adversity.