After unintentionally accompanying his mother’s lifeless body in the ambulance as she was shrouded in a white sheet, Palestinian ambulance worker Abed Bardini realized he was carrying his mother’s body.
When the bloodied covering was pulled, a Palestinian ambulance worker saw something horrifying: the body on the stretcher was his own mother, who had been slain in an Israeli airstrike in central, beleaguered Gaza.
“Oh God, she’s my mom, I promise! I was unaware that it was her. On Wednesday, Abed Bardini bent over his mother Samira and held her head in his arms while crying.
Red Crescent medical staff attempted to comfort him.
As the ambulance rattled on damaged roads for around two kilometers in the direction of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Bardini had unwittingly been sitting next to her body, wrapped in a white sheet that was darkly stained with blood.
Palestinian health officials and Associated Press journalists reported that an Israeli strike on a car in the Maghazi refugee camp killed three individuals and injured at least ten others. Two of the deceased, according to hospital health officials, were men who were seated in the car. Samira Bardini, 61, was killed by the explosion as she was standing close by.
Two ambulances were sent to the scene, including one carrying Abed Bardini. Upon returning to the hospital, he wheeled the body across the courtyard while squinting into the late afternoon sun and unloading the stretcher with a professional demeanor.
Bardini’s strength gave out as medical personnel inside drew back the blanket to look for signs of life.
Later, when his tears had dried up, he sat with his head in his hands next to Samira’s body in the morgue, comforted by his Red Crescent coworkers.
Bardini personally assisted in carrying her body into an ambulance for burial after they said a funeral prayer over her in the parking lot.
Carnage in Israel
In its slaughter in confined Gaza, Israel has so far murdered at least 43,163 Palestinians, primarily women and children, and injured over 101,510 more.
Its assault displaced nearly the whole population and resulted in a severe lack of essentials like food, water, electricity, and medication.
There is growing concern that Israel may plunge the entire region into a full-scale conflict after killing at least 2,822 people in Lebanon since last year and attacking Iranian military installations.
The International Court of Justice is considering a genocide case against Tel Aviv for its slaughter in beleaguered Gaza.
