Tahrer Hassan Salama, an EMT and dispatcher at the Palestine Red Crescent Society

Tahrir begins her day at six in the morning, sharing breakfast with her husband and children before heading to her post at the Palestine Red Crescent Ambulance Center in Deir al-Balah, where she responds to emergency calls from citizens around the clock.

Her journey is marked by painful memories, the hardest of which was receiving a call that her home had been bombed. Overcome with fear, she rushed to the scene with ambulances, only to find that it was the neighboring house that had been hit. On another occasion, Tahrir received a desperate call from a woman in Al-Bureij camp seeking help for her injured husband and son. But due to the extreme danger in the area, classified as a “red zone” by the Israeli occupation army, Tahrir was unable to assist. The helplessness she felt at being unable to answer that plea and save lives still haunts her.

The most painful memory she carries is the loss of her colleague, EMT Yousef Abu Muammar. On that tragic day, Yousef and his team were on a rescue mission, and Tahrir had promised to prepare breakfast for him when he returned. But he never came back. The news that Yousef’s ambulance, along with his colleagues Fadi, Fouad, and Islam, had been targeted, and that all had perished, devastated Tahrir.