AGAIN AND AGAIN – #OurRedLine documentary series

Episode 2_The damage
Script: subtitles and graphics

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Leaving means leaving thousands,

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sometimes millions, of people

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without medical care.

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The soul of the people
has been destroyed.

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I wished for death
rather than live like that.

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We've seen it

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over and over and over.

Chyron
Amman
Jordan
June 2025

Chyron
MSF reconstructive surgery hospital
June 2025

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My injury is in my right hand.

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There was shooting and fighting

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while I was at work.

Chyron
Mohammad Salman
Patient injured in Yemen

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Two explosive bullets hit my arm,

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destroying the bone and joint
completely.

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I had three surgeries in Yemen,
but none of them helped.

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Because of the country's situation,

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I couldn't get proper treatment.

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I couldn't undergo the proper surgery
I needed.

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Then God blessed me with MSF.

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I left Yemen and had
my first surgery here.

Chyron
Roger Gutiérrez
MSF emergency coordinator in Yemen 2016

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After years of conflict
in a place like Yemen,

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the people are sadly
accustomed

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to the violence that is taking place.

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That the bombings were also targeting

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civilian structures,

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markets,

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water points,

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roads, bridges.

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So, anyone who lived

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in northern Yemen at that time

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felt that vulnerability of

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hearing a plane and not knowing
if it was going to bomb you,

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your village,

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your house

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or the bridge next to you.

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When a hospital is also bombed,

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you realise that you are no longer
safe anywhere.

Chyron
Abs
Yemen
August 2016

Chyron
Attack on hospital supported by MSF
August 2016

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If we continue to see

Chyron
Kate Burton
MSF critical incident advisor

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this systematic pattern of attacks

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against healthcare facilities,

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against civilians as well,
in areas of armed conflict,

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then the consequences
for the local populations

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living in these areas
and suffering the effects of war

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are going to be immense.

Chyron
El Fasher
Sudan
May 2024

Chyron
Attack on hospital supported by MSF
May 2024

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We've seen this in Sudan,

Chyron
Abubakr Bakri
MSF doctor and operations manager

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we've seen it in Gaza,

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we've seen it in other parts
of the world.

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The immediate impact is very clear:
it's more casualties,

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whether we're talking about

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people getting killed

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or getting injured.

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But also, we are talking about

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lack of access to health,

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usually for normal preventable diseases,
for example,

Animation
Vaccination
Antenatal care
Deliveries and C-sections
Surgeries
Diabetes
Hypertension
Asthma
Epilepsy
Mental health
HIV
Tuberculosis

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like vaccination services for kids,

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or antenatal care services
for pregnant women.

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Then, normal deliveries

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or even caesarean sections

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and lifesaving surgeries.

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All these services will be cut off.

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The population will be cut off
from these services.

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Also, we lose the access
to chronic disease medications

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and chronic disease management,

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like diabetes,

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hypertension,

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asthma,

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epilepsy,

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mental health cases,

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even HIV,

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tuberculosis, for example.

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And that has very important
and difficult consequences

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in the long term,

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on the impact of these diseases
on the population in the future.

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My 11-year-old son has a disability.

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He can't go to the bathroom by himself,

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so I used to help him.

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It affected me emotionally
and in many ways.

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I wished for death
rather than live like that.

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After my injury, I didn't know
whether to take him

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or go myself to work and earn a living.

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I became disabled,
and he's disabled too.

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It makes life a bit exhausting.

Chyron
Aleppo
Syria
October 2016

Chyron
Multiple attacks on hospitals
October 2016

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But why does it happen when
it seems so absurd

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and it seems like

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this is a protection
that should really be sacred?

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In a time of war, it can happen
for a lot of different reasons.

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It might be purely economic.

Animation
Economic
Looting
To resell supplies
To treat combatants
Revenge
Hatred
Military strategy
Loss of neutrality

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It might be for looting reasons.

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Because people are desperate

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and hungry

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and they need supplies.

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They want to resell them.

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Maybe one of the fighting sides
needs the medical supplies

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to treat their combatants
in another place.

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It could also be

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for reasons such as revenge

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hatred.

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We've seen that in different contexts,

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which are very polarised
and very kind of emotional contexts.

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It might be for very strategic
military reasons.

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For example, a hospital
or a medical centre

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might be in an area

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that needs to be taken
by one of the fighting sides.

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So, we want to attack it

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to make sure that no one's living

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and staying and working in this area.

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And then obviously,
it can be attacked as well

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because it's lost its medical neutrality.

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Maybe there is some kind of

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strategic military planning
happening there.

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Maybe there is a stock
of weapons in there.

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Then the hospital,
the medical facility

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or medical staff

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can lose their protection
in international law.

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[In that case] The attack has to be
proportional to the military objective,

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and also precautions.

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So, all precautionary measures
have to be taken to reduce,

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minimise or eliminate
the risk to civilians

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in the area.

Chyron
Tigray
Ethiopia
June 2021

Chyron
Killing of MSF staff
June 2021

Chyron
María, Tedros, Yohannes
June 2021

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Definitely, the long-term impact

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is the most serious

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and the most difficult

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to replace.

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We are talking about

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the destruction
of the infrastructure.

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And here we are talking about
hospitals, clinics,

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laboratories,
supply chain,

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warehouses, etc.

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Those are very expensive investments.

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So that's one part.

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The other part is
on the healthcare workers themselves

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and the workforce,

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which are either injured or killed.

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And to be honest with you,
now we have

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an increasing trend

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of killing healthcare workers.

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Doctors, nurses, midwives,

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ambulance workers, and all that.

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So, they are either killed or injured

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and become out of

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the service itself

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or they are forced to flee.

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And this brain drain is also
a very dire impact.

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It has a very important consequence
in the long term,

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because we are taking a long time
to train these health workers

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and for them to gain their experience.

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I think you learn when you're involved
in various incidents...

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You see the importance

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of teams being sure.

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That we have to be
where we are while we can,

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but that there comes a time
when you have to prioritise

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the safety of medical staff,

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because if that is compromised,

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then it's all over.

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We will not be able to restore services

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if our teams are not okay,

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if our teams are affected,

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which is happening more and more.

Chyron
Selydove
Ukraine
November 2023

Chyron
Attack on hospital supported by MSF
November 2023

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So, the humanitarian notification system,
or deconfliction,

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it really consists of

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ensuring that the authorities

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in the area of armed conflict where
humanitarian actors

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are working and providing assistance,

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ensuring that those authorities know

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where we are at any one time

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and ensure that our premises,

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our staff,

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the patients that

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we might be treating

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or beneficiaries

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are protected.

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MSF, in the context where it works,

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it communicates with all the different
armed actors in the area.

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So, you might have a state actor
controlling an area,

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but in another area you'll have
a non-state actor.

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You'll have other armed groups

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that might be the de facto
authorities of that area.

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So with all this, is it really possible
to still assume

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that mistakes can happen?

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Let's say that mistakes
can always happen.

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We're human and even drones

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and other equipment that is programmed,

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it's programmed by humans
and so it will have its fallacies.

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But when these types of attacks
become so frequent

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that they are systematic,

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again and again,

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and form a pattern,

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we can no longer accept
that this is a mistake.

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It's not safe back home
due to the current fighting.

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I'm really tired

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but I stay strong for my family.

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I miss them so much.

Text

Mohamad was a labourer before he was injured in 2021. The attack left him unable to move his hand and he lost his job.
While he awaits one last tendon operation, his wife and four children wait for him in Yemen.
He was admitted to MSF's reconstructive surgery hospital in Jordan in April 2024. He says they gave him back his hope.

Call to action
Demand the protection of civilians and healthcare in conflicts around the world #OurRedLine

In the next episode
We see the attacks continuing.

Attacking a healthcare facility

is not so costly anymore.

There is absolutely no respect

for international humanitarian law.

And now we are more than 600 hundred days

after I left my house.