This is the moment a BBC journalist broke down in tears as he reported from a hospital in war-torn Gaza that he had “seen things I can never see again”.
BBC Arab reporter Adnan El-Bursh, overcome with emotion, fell to his knees at Al-Shifa Hospital yesterday and took off his glasses before wiping his face.
Mr. El-Bursh and his team – including cameraman Mahmoud al-Ajrami, who also burst into tears – had discovered that those injured or killed in the hospital included their friends, relatives and neighbors, and he described that “there were bodies everywhere lay”.
Hundreds of seriously injured people filled the hallways of the Strip’s largest medical facility amid traumatic scenes, with bodies lying in the hallways and outside.
Mr. El-Bursh, a father, said to the camera: “This is my local hospital, it contains my friends, my neighbors.” This is my community. Today was one of the most difficult days of my career. I have seen things I can never unsee.’
Mr El-Bursh’s report showed a young girl with a bloodied face sitting upright in a hospital bed, crying and covered in dust, while a doctor attended to her legs.
The journalist and producer, who lives in Gaza and has worked for the BBC since December 2010, revealed that the child had lost her home and her relatives were dead.
He said, “This young girl’s house has been destroyed.” Her relatives have been killed and she needs help. My daughter is the same age. I want to hug her.’
Mr El-Bursh also said that amid what he described as “chaos”, his cameraman Mr al-Ajrami saw his friend Malik surviving in hospital – but his family dead.
The United Nations said today that the Israeli military had told about a million Palestinians living in Gaza to evacuate the north. In other developments:
BBC Arab journalist Adnan El-Bursh was overcome with emotion while reporting from Gaza
Mr. El-Bursh burst into tears when he saw the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza yesterday
Mr. El-Bursh cried when he saw the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital, where there were “dead bodies everywhere.”
BBC cameraman Mahmoud al-Ajrami also cried after seeing his friend Malik lying injured
An emergency worker carries a wounded child to hospital after airstrikes in Gaza today
A Palestinian woman comforts her children as they wait to be examined in the hospital
During his report, Mr El-Burhs also spoke to a mother who was sitting next to the bodies of her dead relatives.
How Adnan El-Bursh is a father who lives in Gaza and has worked for the BBC for 12 years
Adnan El-Bursh is a reporter and producer for BBC Arabic and has worked for the company since December 2010. He has a daughter and lives in Gaza City.
During his time at the BBC he covered the repeated outbreaks of violence between Israel and Gaza.
He hit the headlines back in May 2021 when a building in Gaza collapsed after being hit by an Israeli attack during his live television report. He and his team continued broadcasting, not knowing what would happen.
Mr. El-Bursh previously worked for Egypt-based software design and development company Ramatan Technology from 2003 to 2010.
He joined Twitter in 2013 and his account shows him reporting from the front lines of the war, but he has not posted anything since 2018. He is a member of the Foreign Press Association.
She told him: “We were sleeping and they bombed the house like everyone else.”
“We have no resistance fighters in our building.” The whole building is full of residents. 120 people live there.’
Mr El-Bursh also said: “The corridors of Al-Shifa Hospital are full of corpses.” The mortuary can no longer cope.
“The bodies of the dead must be laid on the ground in front of the hospital entrance.”
“You never want to become history, but in my city I feel helpless as the dead were given no dignity and the injured were all left in pain.”
Meanwhile, according to the United Nations, Israel called on a million Palestinians living in Gaza to evacuate the north.
It is an unprecedented order for nearly half the population of the sealed-off area ahead of an expected ground offensive against the ruling Hamas militant group.
The United Nations has warned that a mass exodus of so many people would be catastrophic.
Hamas, which launched a brutal attack on Israel this week, dismissed the order as a ploy and urged people to stay in their homes, adding to widespread panic.
The evacuation order, which includes Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live, sparked confusion among civilians and aid workers already fleeing Israeli airstrikes and struggling with a total siege and area-wide blackout.
Palestinians could only flee south within the Gaza Strip because Israel has completely sealed off the area, a narrow strip of land about 25 miles long.
Mr. El-Bursh tweeted this image in April 2018 while reporting on the situation in Gaza
Adnan El-Bursh is pictured (far left) in an image on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2017
The BBC’s Adnan El-Bursh is pictured in 2012 reporting on violence in the Gaza Strip
Mr El-Bursh (right), who has worked for the BBC since 2010, with friends in an undated photo
Hamas said Israel’s heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip killed 13 hostages held by the group, including foreigners.
The group’s military wing said the 13 were killed at various locations in the past 24 hours.
The nationalities of the foreigners were not disclosed and there was no confirmation of Israel’s claims.
The Israeli military said it would use “significant force” in Gaza in the coming days and called on civilians to evacuate.
Spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Israel Defense Forces were making “extensive efforts to prevent harm to civilians.”
He added: “As we are aware that there are civilians here who are not our enemies and we do not want to target them, we are asking them to evacuate.”
The directive followed a United Nations warning it received from Israel to evacuate 1.1 million people in northern Gaza within 24 hours.
Suffering in Gaza has increased dramatically as Palestinians desperately need food, fuel and medicine, while the territory’s only power plant has closed due to a lack of fuel.
The mortuary at Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, was overcrowded as bodies arrived faster than relatives could collect them.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit is scheduled today, a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A man carries a wounded child to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City
An Israeli Army M109 self-propelled 155mm howitzer fires shots near the Gaza border
People stand next to the bodies of the victims in front of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City
Palestinians carry an injured man onto a stretcher after an Israeli attack in the southern Gaza Strip
The war has claimed at least 2,800 lives on both sides since Hamas invaded on October 7.
Inas Hamdan, an official with the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency in Gaza City, said: “This is chaos, no one understands what to do.”
She said all U.N. personnel in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip had been ordered to evacuate south to Rafah.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, claimed there was no way to safely relocate more than a million people within the allotted time frame, saying: “Forget the food, forget the electricity, forget the… Fuel. “The only concern now is whether…you will survive.”
She added: “What will happen to our patients? We have the wounded, we have the elderly, we have children lying in hospitals.”
The flood of instructions was taken as a signal of an expected Israeli ground offensive, although the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such a decision.
Yesterday it was said that no decision had been made during the preparation.
The United Nations said the comprehensive evacuation warning it had received for the entire northern Gaza Strip also applied to all U.N. staff and to the hundreds of thousands who have sought refuge in U.N. schools and other facilities since Israel rounded up on Saturday the clock launched air strikes.
A man carries a wounded child to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City
Rescue workers take an injured Palestinian to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City
Israeli occupation aircraft launch white phosphorus bombs west of Gaza City
A man carries an injured Palestinian baby to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“The United Nations urges that any such order, if confirmed, be repealed to avoid turning what is already a tragic situation into a catastrophic one.”
Another UN official said the UN was seeking clarity from Israeli officials at the highest political levels.
A ground offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza would likely result in more casualties on both sides in brutal urban fighting.
Last Saturday’s unprecedented Hamas attack and smaller attacks since then killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers – a number not seen in Israel for decades – and the subsequent Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, according to authorities in both countries Countries killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza.
Israel says about 1,500 Hamas fighters have been killed in Israel and that hundreds of those killed in Gaza were Hamas members. Thousands were injured on both sides.
As Israel bombs Gaza from the air, Hamas militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
Amid concerns that fighting could spread to the region, Syrian state media reported that Israeli air strikes disabled two Syrian international airports yesterday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush” Hamas after the militants stormed into the south of the country last Saturday and massacred hundreds of people, including children in their own homes and teenagers at a music festival.
A fireball erupts during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City
Israeli tanks move near the Gaza border while the Israeli army deploys military vehicles
Israeli artillery fire is firing into the Gaza Strip from the border
Amid the Israeli public’s grief and demands for revenge, the government is under intense pressure to topple Hamas rather than continue trying to contain it in Gaza.
The number of people forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes rose 25 percent in a day, reaching 423,000 in a population of 2.3 million, the United Nations said yesterday.
Also yesterday, the Israeli military pulverized the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, preparing for a possible ground invasion and saying a full siege of the territory would remain in place until Hamas militants released about 150 hostages they captured during their weekend attack.