En los casi diez minutos de entrevista que vamos a mostrar, más abajo, van expresándose alternativamente el cirujano de guerra británico-iraquí Dr. Mohammad Tahir y el director y productor Mike Lerner.
Hablan sobre su proyecto audiovisual y la aberrante distopía muy real a la que se refiere, y es que el metraje documenta las indescriptibles tareas médicas del doctor Tahir en el contexto de un genocidio en la Franja Gaza.
Oímos y vemos así, "sin filtros", lo que supone trabajar en los hospitales del infierno peor que dantesco en que Israel ha convertido ese pedacito de Mediterráneo, desde la atención a pacientes afectados por todo tipo de horrores en instalaciones médicas desbordadas de gente, carentes de todo, asediadas, atacadas, hasta el testimonio sobre la urgencia, la angustia y las enormes presiones que pesan sobre los equipos médicos gazatíes —blanco ellos mismos de los disparos y bombas del ejército genocida, que les dedica incluso sus técnicas matarifes de "double-tap" o doble golpe, ya saben, esa técnica militar sionista que consiste en bombardear dos veces el mismo objetivo para cepillarse también a los equipos de socorro y ambulancias.
Por supuesto, Israel también les reserva la prisión y la tortura. Recordemos que fuentes del Ministerio de Salud de Gaza y organizaciones como Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) sitúan la cifra de personal médico asesinado por Israel en la Franja de Gaza en como mínimo 1.722 —entre médicos, enfermeros, paramédicos, conductores de ambulancias y personal administrativo hospitalario. Ya no pueden contarlo, ya no pueden sanar.
Además, al menos 362 miembros del personal médico que opera en Gaza han sido secuestrados por las veteranas fuerzas coloniales genocidas de Israel. Con sadismo especial para quienes más resisten, como el doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, director del hospital Kamal Adwan en el norte de Gaza y símbolo de la mayor belleza de la humanidad.
Supongo que nada que no supiéramos, en general, y en muchos detalles. Hemos asistido a muchísimos otros testimonios al respecto, todos impresionantes, como el de la doctora estadounidense Mimi Syed, el de Mohammed Salha, el del asesinado Abu Nuzhaila (quien, antes de ser liquidado por el ejército colonial, escribió en una pizarra: "Hicimos lo que pudimos. Recordadnos"), los de los cirujanos britanicos Victoria Rose, Ana Jeelani y Graeme Groom, el de los Doctors Against Genocide... El interés de este crudo documental radica en su condición, de nuevo, de potente testimonio personal —durísimo, con (enésimas) imágenes de verdad—, para consideración de negacionistas, que aborda, con todas sus historias concretas, uno de los temas más ilustrativos del genocidio en el que está empeñado el Sionismo para vaciar Palestina de su poblacion nativa y reemplazarla por completo: la conversión de los supervivientes en enfermos y mutilados hambrientos, sin recursos y sin refugios, a la intemperie, que no puedan ni refugiarse, ni curarse, ni mitigar sus sufrimientos. Y la conversión del trabajo de los médicos (cada vez más escasos) en un inhumano trabajo de Sísifo que sólo crece, horroriza y no permite ni el descanso físico ni mental. Por eso... nadie es el mismo después.
El testimonio de Mohammad Tahir es abrumador, el contenido y las imágenes de la película... insoportables. Cuidado.
Lo que nos cuenta es insufrible e intolerable, y si tenemos especial interés en transmitirlo es porque el doctor Tahir ha dicho expresamente que quiere que sepa: "I would love for that message to come across". Que haber visto de cerca el horror, haberlo tocado —en un mundo gobernado por psicópatas que cultivan diversos negacionismos—, no sea en vano. Y porque los seres humanos no podemos aceptar sin auténtica reacción este martirio palestino inacabable ni la impunidad genocida sionista que sigue perpetrándolo alevosamente. Tenemos que seguir denunciando e intentando parar ambas cosas.
“I am not the same person I was before I went to Gaza.”
In this interview, British Iraqi war surgeon Dr Mohammad Tahir and filmmaker Mike Lerner discuss The Mission, a documentary following Tahir’s medical missions to Gaza. The film offers an unfiltered look at the reality of working inside Gaza’s hospitals, from treating patients in overwhelmed medical facilities to witnessing the immense pressures faced by local medical teams.
The Mission contains graphic footage from inside Gaza’s hospitals. Viewer discretion is advised.
[“Ya no soy la misma persona que era antes de ir a Gaza”.
En esta entrevista, el Dr. Mohammad Tahir, cirujano británico especializado en la guerra de Irak, y el cineasta Mike Lerner hablan sobre «La Misión», un documental que sigue las misiones médicas de Tahir en Gaza. La película ofrece una visión sin filtros de la realidad del trabajo en los hospitales de Gaza, desde el tratamiento de pacientes en centros médicos saturados hasta la inmensa presión a la que se enfrentan los equipos médicos locales.
«La Misión» contiene imágenes explícitas del interior de los hospitales de Gaza que pueden traumatizar a los espectadores.]
Middle East Eye: Medics smuggle iPhones into Gaza to film documentary, 23.09.2026.
TRANSCRIPCIÓN [las acotaciones entre corchetes son aclaraciones o desarrollos de mi cosecha]:
Capítulo 1: Gaza under fire
Catherine "Cat" McShane (MEE): This documentary was shot on iPhone smuggled into Gaza by medics.
Dr Mohammad Tahir (War Surgeon and founder of Al Risaleh Foundation): I have never seen anything like this in my life. Everywhere you look, there is destruction. It's apocalyptic.
There is a sea of people walking around with injuries, mangled limbs, or burns, or shrapnel injuries to all of their bodies, dead children, dead women, people who are clearly innocent. [Hay un mar de gente caminando con heridas, miembros destrozados, o quemaduras, o heridas de metralla en todo el cuerpo, niños muertos, mujeres muertas, gente claramente inocente.]
Those were the darkest days of my life, and I will never forget those.
When I tell you about all the different levels of human suffering that is ongoing in Gaza, which you can imagine, it's happening.
I suppose this is one of the reasons why international media are not allowed in. Because if they were and they were able to be those witnesses, the story would have been much different.
Mike Lerner (Director and producer): It's a film that doesn't pull its punches. That is quite shocking in many ways, but you know… but then the genocide is shocking.
I think there's so many people that have kind of got used to seeing these abhorrent images of death and destruction. And we wanted to kind of, in a way, put a more human side to this and show the victims and those that are contributing towards their salvation in some way.
Capítulo 2: The mission of Dr. Tahir
1:25
Dr Mohammad Tahir: There was a lot to consider before committing to a movie like this. Did I want to be in the limelight? Did I want people to know me? I really didn't. I wanted to go unknown, unspoken of. I just wanted to fulfil what I considered was my duty. And so, what was a surgical mission, what was me being a doctor exclusively going and helping, really morphed into several roles.
You morphed into a journalist, you morphed into someone who gave a voice to the voiceless.
Mike Lerner: And we were very very lucky to meet with Dr. Tahir, and he agreed to make this film. And then, we filmed with him for quite a bit of time in London and elsewhere before he went back to Gaza for his third mission. And then, when he went back, we gave him a couple of iPhones to smuggle into Gaza to give to two of his medical colleagues, two of his nurses. And we thought it would be great if we had a bit of footage of him doing his stuff in the film.
And then, when they returned four months later, we had 100 hours of footage.
Capítulo 3: Crisis in hospitals
2:37
Dr Mohammad Tahir: The very first hospital I visited in Gaza was the European hospital in April of 2024… and I was shocked from what I witnessed.
It was not a hospital. It was a refugee camp. There were thousands of people that were seeking refuge and shelter in the hospital, in the corridors, on the stairwells, in the ER [Emergency Room]… everywhere, everywhere.
They lived in the hospital. They were trying to escape the killing of Khan Yunis and Rafah. Well, at that time, it was Khan Yunis. We were missing so many important medications, antibiotics, pain medications, anaesthesia.
Every hospital had its own flavour of suffering. You know, the south was different to the north. The north lacked for example specialists. There was no vascular… very few vascular surgeons. There was no ICU [Intensive Care Unit].
So many people died unnecessarily. There was no blood products or very few blood products. There was no availability of something called platelets [“plaquetas”].
Many many people died despite your best efforts in the operating room.
Capítulo 4: Witnessing the conflict
3:47
Mike Lerner: We were very fortunate that Dr. Tahir and his team moved around Gaza.
So, we weren't just sort of stuck in one place, one hospital. So, we get glimpses of life, as it were, and death, around the country, and… I mean, really, in particular, the second half of the film really is about Dr. Tahir being in the north of Gaza, which at that time was a desperately dangerous place to be, and it still is. And I do believe that Dr. Tahir was the only western or foreign doctor in the north at that time.
So, so, yeah, so, we choose these scenes, and we choose this material based on the way it can expand our understanding of what was happening there.
Dr Mohammad Tahir: What we witnessed in Gaza, really, is something that I find incredibly difficult to convey, and these emotions have changed with time. The more that distance has been created, the more I feel, wow, what the hell did I witness? How the hell did that happen? How did humanity let that ever occur? That Gaza was such a bloodbath, an abattoir of humans.
It was indescribable. And no place was safe. And that included hospitals.
Capítulo 5: The reality of trauma
5:08
And I remember very very clearly many… just quite astonishing moments, you know, when on the operating room where I'd run out of gauze and I had to ring the same gauze from blood to just keep reusing over and over and over…
The bombing that would occur, and the whole building shaking in the middle of operating, and everyone looking at each other thinking oh, my god! they've hit the hospital!
You know, that happened when I was in Al-Aqsa [Hospital – gasps…].
And… just the sheer number of people coming through the Emergency Room… every day with these mass casualty events, people on the floor, limbs hanging off, guts out, faces opened up, brains out, people, children dying everywhere, people gasping for their last breath on the floor… No ventilators to… not enough ventilators to share between people coming to the resuscitation room, in the Emergency Department…
Capítulo 6: Synthesizing the narrative
6:00
Mike Lerner: Out of those hundreds of hours of footage, as you can imagine, there's a lot of repetition to that. I mean, there's so many different operations, and life-saving operations, and scenes of terrible injury and death… And so, you know, when you're first faced with this, you know, it does seem relentless, and quite frankly, people sort of get a bit bored with seeing those things over and over again.
But then, as we kind of re viewed the material more, and looked into, we found there were various themes and layers to it that would be interesting. So, it's about pulling out... so, the things you choose are not just because they look a certain way, but because they also tell a wider story, whether it's about lack of resources in the hospital, or the prevalence of shrapnel wounds in people, the relationship between Tahir and his staff, and the general progress of the genocide.
Capítulo 7: Personal transformation
7:05
Dr Mohammad Tahir: I was watching the movie again recently and… man, I just thought, my god! what the hell was I really there? [recuerdo que escuchando este fragmento me acordé ipso facto de Si esto es un hombre / Se questo è un uomo de Primo Levi] It just… it felt so surreal.
I'm not the same person that I was before I went to Gaza. I don't have any of the same interests that I had before Gaza. I'm so focused, laser focused on… the process that liberates our people. This is my goal. This is my mission. And all human life is equal. So, our mission is to work on liberating our people, and unfortunately, I've been placed in a position where sort of transcended from a role of just a doctor into something else now.
It's a huge burden. I don't like it. I wish I was an unknown person, but… this is the reality and so, this is the responsibility, and I must continue until my last breath.
Capítulo 8: Message to the future
7:59
Mike Lerner: I can't think of other films that had an embedded crew for like four months. So, and the amount of material and the kind of material that was achieved, you know, I've not seen in any other film, and the fact that the people making the film are involved in the story: they're right at the centre of everything 24 hours a day. I mean they eat, sleep, with him, and so, the intimacy of it, and the… I think, the amount of… I suppose, detail, if you like or… access to the reality of the situation is very profound.
Dr Mohammad Tahir: I would love for people to watch this and look at a very ordinary person, that is myself, and think… you know what: if you believe in something so much, and you believe in humanity so much, and you commit to it, then you can make an impact, and you can change… something about this cruel world.
And I… really, I put that message to the younger generation, that —I hope— watch this and take some inspiration from it.
Because they are the ones that are going to shape the future. They are the future leaders. They are the future policy makers. They are the decision makers. They are the ones that will shape this world.
And I hope that, when they get into fields like medicine and so on, that they understand that there's a huge responsibility there, and even for non-doctors and people are not in the healthcare field, in any capacity that you work in, that, if you believe in the cause of humanity and you go out there, you can make impact and I would love for that message to come across.
