British medic's heartbreaking two words to dead Gaza child, 9, while zipping up their body bag
For British medic Sam Sears, the episode is one he will never forget. Only days into working in Gaza, he was tasked with an act underlining war's grim reality — putting children into body bags.
Though, of course, he bore no blame, Sam poignantly told one lifeless lad as he zipped up the bag: 'I'm sorry.' The brave NHS paramedic, 44, recently returned from a three-week stint in the stricken enclave for charity UK-Med. The British non-profit runs two field hospitals there where Sam, from Northamptonshire, split his time. After haunting pictures of emaciated children have emerged from the strip, he has offered a harrowing account of the experience. Drones and gunfire provided a chilling soundtrack for his days – and the flow of horrific injuries was constant.
International pressure has been building on Israel to end the conflict, with PM Keir Starmer highlighting the 'terrible suffering' Palestinians have endured. But fighting has yet to stop; nor has the hunger. Famine, experts say, is underway. And just this week, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take control of all of Gaza. More bloodshed will inevitably follow.
Just a few days into Sam's deployment, he had to contend with a 'mass casualty incident'. Two boys, one aged nine, the other 10 or 11, were killed – and a third, about only eight, was in a dire state with shrapnel injuries. 'I was tasked with going into the resus area to support in there,' Sam, who back in the UK works for East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, recalled. 'There's three beds and when I went in on two of the beds there were two deceased children and on the other bed there was another child critically unwell.'
His job was an unenviable one; to confirm their deaths and put them into body bags to be taken to the mortuary. 'It was me and an interpreter,' Sam said. 'It was difficult because we knew we had to be quick to get them away to make room. But we were being very dignified, the way we were handling. Even in the UK when we declare someone deceased and then we make them at peace for the family to see them, I do sometimes say something to them.
'But I definitely said to this young nine-year-old, 'I'm sorry', as I zipped up the body bag.' Asked why they were the words that came to him, Sam explained: 'I think just because his demise, his end, came because of this whole war going on and he didn't deserve it.' The incident is one he will never forget 'without a doubt', he said.
Sam, a veteran of deployments to Ukraine, Rwanda, Turkey and Sierra Leone for UK-Med, is no stranger to working in tough environments. But Gaza was so much worse than he anticipated – 'the destruction and devastation is just unprecedented'. 'Malnutrition is no longer a future threat. It is a present killer,' Sam said. 'One of my patients was a 16-year-old girl named Noor. She has diabetes but was half the expected weight for her age.
'Her father told me they sometimes went two days without food or clean water. Noor was lucky to reach us in time, but many others do not. Even those who survive the hunger live in constant fear. There is no safe space. The sound of shelling and airstrikes is relentless. Children cry not just from pain or hunger, but from sheer terror. The health system in Gaza has been battered. Hospitals are under-resourced, understaffed, and overwhelmed. Supplies are critically low. Electricity is intermittent. Colleagues I worked with in Gaza – brave, committed local medics – have lost homes, family members, and friends, yet they keep working. Their resilience is extraordinary, but it is not infinite.'
UK-Med's field hospitals are in Al-Mawasi, in the south, which includes an emergency department, and Deir El Balah in central Gaza. The Manchester charity has been backed with £19million of funding by the UK government for its work in the strip. The Manchester charity has been backed with £19million of funding by the UK government for its work in Gaza. UK-Med has carried out over 600,000 patient consultations since starting work in the strip in January 2024.
It is approaching two years since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel left about 1,200 dead and saw 251 hostages taken, sparking the war. Though some hostages have been released, nearly 50 are still said to be held – just over half of whom are believed to be dead. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory military offensive, according to Gaza's health ministry. And hunger looms over the crippled territory. Only last month, the UN said nearly one in three people in the enclave are going days without eating. Though it has yet to be officially declared, UN-backed global food security experts have warned 'the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out'.
Sam added: 'This crisis requires a sustained ceasefire, not a fragile truce. It requires a permanent end to hostilities, full protection for civilians and health workers, and unhindered humanitarian access to food, fuel, and medical supplies. The longer the world waits, the higher the cost. Hunger and despair are spreading faster than aid can reach. If the conflict doesn't kill, starvation might. As I return to my life in the UK, I carry the weight of what I saw. The people of Gaza don't get to leave. They have no escape from the hunger, the fear, the trauma. They need more than our sympathy. They need our action.'
Heartbreaking images from UK-Med's Al-Mawasi hospital this week paint a continuing picture of desperation. One shows the hand of a malnourished girl, with stick-thin arms, resting on her dad's. The child, Amira, visited the charity's nutrition clinic earlier this week with dad Abdulkader, mum Mona and brother Mohammed. In another picture, anguish was written on little Mohammed's face as his mother held him. According to UK-Med, there are four children in the family in total – all are suffering malnutrition. The only way for Abdulkader to get his daughter to stop writhing was to say 'milk, milk' – despite not having any. Another desperate story in a place where hope feels in short supply.
But though tragic, Sam's tale of the two dead children offers a silver lining – the third boy survived after undergoing surgery. 'The next day, I found out he was sat up in bed and expected to make a full recovery,' Sam explained. 'It shows why we have to do what we do.'
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