In one of Gaza City's darkest nights, three paramedics were killed while responding to desperate cries for help. Baraa Afaneh, Wael Al-Attar, and Hussein Muheisen were targeted by an Israeli airstrike as they tried to evacuate civilians from a bombed residential building in Al-Tuffah neighbourhood.

Their deaths dealt another devastating blow to Gaza’s collapsing healthcare system, where emergency responders work under constant threat. Baraa, the youngest, had volunteered since the war began, carrying his medical kit into the worst-hit areas. His father, a senior medic, buried him in the uniform he died in.

Wael, a veteran paramedic, had survived previous wars. Known for saying, “If we don’t go, no one will,” he never hesitated to return to the field. Hussein, director of emergency services in Gaza governorate, was a leader who refused to stay behind. He personally led the mission that took his life.

Video footage showed medics attempting to retrieve their bodies, only to be targeted again. Dozens of medical workers have been killed since the war began. They carried no weapons, only stretchers and oxygen tanks.

At the funeral, Baraa’s father spoke for all of Gaza’s exhausted medics: “They killed the ones who run toward suffering. But we will continue. That’s what they would have done.”