Tragic moment Gaza ambulance worker realises body he is carrying is his own mother

A paramedic has endured the unthinkable after discovering the lifeless body he was carrying was his own mother. WARNING: Graphic

WARNING: Distressing content

A Palestinian paramedic has endured the unthinkable after discovering the lifeless body he was carrying was his own mother.

Ambulance worker Abed Bardini was filmed breaking down at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Gaza after realising he was ferrying his 61-year-old mother Samira Bardini from a bomb site.

“Oh God, I swear — she’s my mother. I didn’t know it was her,” Bardini screamed as he bent over and cradled the shrouded figure on the stretcher.

According to reports from the Associated Press, Samira Bardini was fatally injured in an airstrike on Wednesday that hit a car in Maghazi refugee camp, killing three and injuring at least 10 others.

Local health officials said two of those killed had been inside the vehicle, while Bardini was struck as she stood nearby.

The strike unfolded as aid into Gaza hit record lows, leaving conditions in the region dire amid escalated clashes.

The moment medic Abed Bardini realised that he was transporting the body of his mother. Credit: Abed Al Kareem Hana/AP

Thousands of Gaza residents have been displaced in recent weeks, with the toll reaching over 43,000 dead, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

Bardini had been among the emergency responders dispatched to the scene in Maghazi, unknowingly sharing an ambulance ride with his own mother’s body.

Video footage captures his heart-wrenching moment of realisation inside the hospital, as he collapses beside her body.

Following a funeral prayer held by Bardini and his fellow medics, he helped transport his mother’s body to the burial site.

Abed Bardini held prayers for his mother before taking her body to an ambulance to be transported for a burial Credit: Abed Al Kareem Hana/AP

Israel’s military has not commented on the strike that led to Samira’s death, as officials around the world work to ease tensions and bring about a ceasefire.

Senior Hamas official, Taher al-Nunu, told AFP on Wednesday that the group would reject any proposals for a short-term ceasefire, insisting instead on a “permanent end to the war”.

It came as the World Health Organisation condemned the Israeli attack Thursday on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, which caused injuries and damaged recently-delivered lifesaving supplies.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) meanwhile voiced concern for one of its medics detained by Israeli forces in Kamal Adwan.

“WHO condemns this morning’s attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital,” the UN health agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

Tedros said the attack “caused injuries to some hospital staff members, and hit a storage space containing lifesaving WHO supplies brought in via complex missions, as well as the desalination station and water tanks on top of the hospital.

A Palestinian youth pushes his bicycle amid the rubble following Israeli strikes in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on November 1, 2024.

Burnt medical supplies are scattered in a storage room hit by an Israeli strike on the Kamal Adwan hospital.

“The hospital has been barely functioning since the most recent raid. The latest attack is putting patients’ lives at grave risk.

“The health situation in northern Gaza is appalling. We call on everyone to protect hospitals and fully comply with international humanitarian law.”

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said the hospital’s third floor was hit, resulting in the loss of supplies “delivered just five days ago”.

Israel launched a major air and ground assault in northern Gaza this month, saying it wanted to stop Hamas militants regrouping there.

Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza’s last functioning hospital, was stormed by Israeli forces on Friday, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian territory’s health ministry.

MSF meanwhile said it had received confirmation that Mohammed Obeid, one of its orthopaedic surgeons, had been detained by Israeli forces on Saturday along with several other medical staff from Kamal Adwan.

“We are extremely alarmed by the detention of our colleague. Dr Obeid has been working tirelessly since the beginning of the war, offering his support as a doctor to multiple hospitals in Gaza. His work has saved countless lives,” MSF said in a statement.

Its last contact with Obeid had been on Friday, and MSF has requested information on his detention status, whereabouts and his physical and mental wellbeing.

“We call for the safety and the protection of our colleague, and for all medical staff in Gaza who work under impossible conditions and are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care,” said MSF.

– with AFP