Majd Sattoum

Nurse Lana Abugharbieh Witnesses Release of Palestinian Prisoners During Second Gaza Mission Content warning: Descriptions of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Editor’s Note: We interviewed Nurse Lana Abugharbieh twice, once on Sept. 24, 2024, several months after her first medical mission to Gaza in January of 2024, and the second time on March 16, 2025 after she returned from her second mission to Gaza in February of 2025.

A year and a half of genocide with more than 50,000 martyrs and an entire city reduced to rubble. You believe you survived, but soon realize that what you survived was only the bombs, not the trauma embedded in your soul, which never heals, never ceases. You start to piece together your wounds, trying to count your losses, but you soon discover that nothing remains, and even then, you’re reminded that it could turn for the worse in any instant.

“I cannot unsee what I saw. I cannot unhear the cries and the screams that I heard and unsmell the smell of festering wounds.” –Ghassan Abu-Sittah, A State of Passion I wasn’t expecting my hands to shake so much while watching directors and documentary filmmakers Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi’s documentary, “A State of Passion.” The documentary debuted at the Cairo International Film Festival in November 2024.