Shadi Al Najjar, an MSF physiotherapist during a session with a patient wounded in the Great March of Return protest. November 2019, Al Awda Hospital, Jabalia, northern Gaza.

“I had the chance to go abroad some years ago. After I graduated in Gaza I was able to attend some specialization courses in India, and then I started working in Mumbai. But I decided to come back to Gaza when my father needed open-heart surgery. Now my life is here, with my wife, our two daughters and my old parents,” Shadi explains. “This hospital became my second home. Since we started working with patients who were shot in the protests, we’ve been seeing forty to fifty patients every day. And days can be long when we face difficult cases like patients who have lost hope and are overwhelmed by the pain,” says Shadi. “But many of them recover, even if it’s a difficult and lengthy process. So it’s just amazing when I see somebody walking again after such efforts.”