Médecins Sans Frontières - Displaced Lives

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSB233062

Date taken / Date Recorded 15/05/2025 12:00 AM

Country Palestinian Territories

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Motassem Abu Aser

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 8m47s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 1.96 GB

Additional Information / Shotlist SCRIPT ENG :

00:00:02:16 - 00:00:04:02
Slowly, I don’t want
you to fall.

00:00:04:02 - 00:00:10:01
Between October 2023,
more than 1.9 million Palestinians
were displaced in Gaza,
representing nearly 90% of the population.

00:00:10:18 - 00:00:16:23
Following the ceasefire
more than half a million people
returned to northern Gaza to see
what remained of their homes.

00:00:25:22 - 00:00:27:17
We are looking for mallow,
is there any?

00:00:30:16 - 00:00:32:23
We are not safe,
because every day

00:00:32:23 - 00:00:35:02
I wake up to the sound
of gunfire nearby.

00:00:35:22 - 00:00:39:12
I hear the ships and the tanks
firing every day,

00:00:39:12 - 00:00:41:03
morning and night.

00:00:41:24 - 00:00:43:19
The jets never leave the sky.

00:00:44:04 - 00:00:45:24
Even if there is a ceasefire,

00:00:45:24 - 00:00:47:11
I don’t feel safe,

00:00:47:11 - 00:00:49:13
because they [Israeli forces]
are close to us.

00:00:49:23 - 00:00:52:01
This whole area is unsafe.

00:00:52:02 - 00:00:53:17
There is no life in the North.

00:00:54:02 - 00:00:59:08
It’s unfit for living, for life,
for education, for health.

00:01:00:20 - 00:01:06:02
In Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, most residents have lost
everything.
Israeli airstrikes have reduced their homes
to rubble.

00:01:06:02 - 00:01:12:09
Four generations of women
from the same family
live together in one tent.
Hanan, Anwar, Nour, Sahar and Deema.

00:01:12:09 - 00:01:17:05
They have been living there together
for a year and a half.

00:01:24:22 - 00:01:27:08
We struggle with
water and life in the tent

00:01:27:08 - 00:01:28:19
especially during the winter.

00:01:28:19 - 00:01:31:06
We had no clothes.

00:01:31:06 - 00:01:32:23
It was hard for my youngest son.

00:01:35:06 - 00:01:38:14
I had to dress him in the same clothes,

00:01:38:14 - 00:01:39:22
I would undress him,
wash

00:01:39:22 - 00:01:41:14
and hang the clothes up,
hoping they'd dry.

00:01:41:14 - 00:01:43:18
Those were the hardest
months of our lives.

00:01:54:03 - 00:01:57:14
The thing that tires me the most
is fetching water.

00:01:58:03 - 00:02:03:21
The bottles are so heavy,
and the line is always long.

00:02:04:06 - 00:02:06:11
It’s really hot,
it’s hard to get it,

00:02:06:11 - 00:02:12:00
and when someone gets the hose, they fill their own containers first.

00:02:32:22 - 00:02:34:11
This is the life
of a Palestinian,

00:02:34:16 - 00:02:36:11
in the shadow
of the occupation,

00:02:37:07 - 00:02:39:18
in the shadow of a world that
does not stand with us.

00:02:39:18 - 00:02:41:04
This is the life
of a Palestinian.

00:02:46:02 - 00:02:47:19
We used to wash dishes in a sink.

00:02:47:19 - 00:02:49:16
We used to cook on a stove.

00:02:49:16 - 00:02:51:18
Now we cook over a fire,

00:02:51:18 - 00:02:54:08
wash dishes in plastic bowls,
bathe in barrels.

00:02:54:24 - 00:02:57:17
That’s the life we’re living now,
a life that isn’t right.

00:02:58:04 - 00:02:59:18
And the whole world is watching.

00:03:00:04 - 00:03:02:21
Couldthey [the rest of the world]
live like this?

00:03:07:01 - 00:03:10:17
Put the glasses together,
we should be organised

00:03:10:17 - 00:03:13:12
as if we had a kitchen.

00:03:16:20 - 00:03:21:10
I used to work in the paediatric unit,
in the ICU [in Kamal Adwan hospital]

00:03:22:02 - 00:03:24:03
I treated many children.

00:03:24:03 - 00:03:27:16
We struggled with a lack
of oxygen machines

00:03:27:16 - 00:03:31:14
and malnutrition among
the children.

00:03:33:00 - 00:03:36:03
My daughter had brain atrophy.

00:03:36:06 - 00:03:37:24
She was kept on a machine
for two days.

00:03:38:12 - 00:03:40:16
And then she died.

00:03:41:15 - 00:03:46:03
After my daughter’s death
and leaving my job,

00:03:46:04 - 00:03:49:17
I applied for a master’s programme
in nutrition at Al-Azhar University.

00:03:51:12 - 00:03:56:08
B capital, b small,
B capital, b small.

00:03:56:08 - 00:03:59:12
OK that’s right,
what is next?

00:03:59:12 - 00:04:01:08
Capital C, small c.

00:04:01:08 - 00:04:02:04
Excellent!

00:04:17:21 - 00:04:20:14
Check if it is mallow, Nour.

00:04:22:10 - 00:04:24:07
You don’t know mallow
Hamoud?

00:04:24:22 - 00:04:27:17
Here.
It looks like this.

00:04:29:11 - 00:04:30:22
Yes, it looks like this!

00:04:30:22 - 00:04:34:24
If you pick more,
you’ll eat more.

00:04:36:04 - 00:04:42:03
Yes, pick more so I can make fatteh
with lemon and pickles.

00:04:42:16 - 00:04:45:05
Nice! Bless your hands.

00:04:46:07 - 00:04:49:17
I very rarely go to the market

00:04:49:22 - 00:04:51:20
I only get tomatoes there.

00:04:52:00 - 00:04:54:24
One day mallow, next day tongue herb,
another day canned food.

00:04:56:02 - 00:04:57:14
This is my life.

00:05:14:23 - 00:05:16:21
When I grow up,
I want to be a doctor,

00:05:16:21 - 00:05:17:21
like my mum,

00:05:17:21 - 00:05:20:16
so I can treat children.

00:05:21:03 - 00:05:23:23
I wish I could be
like the other girls,

00:05:23:23 - 00:05:25:07
without vitiligo.

00:05:25:10 - 00:05:28:21
I dye my hair to cover the patches.

00:05:28:21 - 00:05:33:05
Whenever I see henna in the market,
I ask my mum to buy it.

00:05:33:20 - 00:05:35:11
It makes me happy,

00:05:35:11 - 00:05:37:08
I can feel like
the other girls.

00:05:40:15 - 00:05:42:11
I dream of going back to my room.

00:05:42:11 - 00:05:45:19
I just wish I could return to my room

00:05:45:19 - 00:05:48:22
and for my vitiligo to go away.

00:06:09:23 - 00:06:14:18
Down came the rocket and
I knew it was my daughter.

00:06:14:18 - 00:06:16:01
She didn’t make it.

00:06:17:15 - 00:06:19:24
I ran over the rubble,
through the fire.

00:06:20:03 - 00:06:21:20
I didn’t care if another
rocket was coming.

00:06:21:20 - 00:06:23:00
Because I knew it was her.

00:06:28:16 - 00:06:32:05
We are alive, but
we’re not really living.

00:06:33:03 - 00:06:36:02
Or maybe it’s truer to say we’re dead,
but the heartbeat remains.

00:06:36:17 - 00:06:38:02
The day my daughter was killed,

00:06:38:02 - 00:06:39:06
my life shut down.

00:06:40:00 - 00:06:42:19
Even when my phone rings,
I don’t want to answer.

00:06:42:19 - 00:06:44:15
I can’t bear to talk,
even for a minute.

00:06:45:03 - 00:06:48:21
I have no will to speak to anyone,
to see anyone.

00:06:49:14 - 00:06:52:10
I just want to sit with my daughter’s belongings,
and her memories.

00:07:00:04 - 00:07:01:21
I never expected to remain alive.

00:07:02:18 - 00:07:04:07
The day my sister was killed,

00:07:04:08 - 00:07:05:10
it broke me.

00:07:05:10 - 00:07:06:10
We used to be close.

00:07:06:24 - 00:07:09:09
When I’m alone,
I think about my sister.

00:07:10:03 - 00:07:11:16
I like to draw everything,

00:07:11:16 - 00:07:14:06
I only feel inner peace
when I draw.

00:07:15:16 - 00:07:18:01
We are afraid
to sleep at night.

00:07:18:21 - 00:07:21:13
It’s hard.
I’m too scared to sleep.

00:07:21:17 - 00:07:23:22
When I go to
fetch water, for example,

00:07:23:22 - 00:07:27:08
I always think,
I might be killed.

00:07:27:08 - 00:07:29:04
I didn’t expect
Ii will make it.

00:07:45:17 - 00:07:47:15
The source of strength
that keeps me going

00:07:47:15 - 00:07:48:12
is my children.

00:07:49:05 - 00:07:51:00
They’re the ones who
keep me alive.

00:07:51:00 - 00:07:52:10
Everything I do,
it’s all for them.

00:07:52:13 - 00:07:54:22
In the future,
I just wish for my children to live

00:07:54:22 - 00:07:57:09
a better life than the one
they have now.

00:07:57:09 - 00:07:59:06
I don’t wish for anything more
than that.

00:08:54:10 - 00:09:04:04
The ceasefire in Gaza ended
on 18 March 2025 after Israeli forces
launched massive bombings
across the Gaza Strip.

00:09:05:05 - 00:09:12:03
Hanan,
Anwar, Deema and Nour
are still living in their tent
in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

Displaced Lives - Documentary [AR]

Displaced Lives - Documentary [AR]