Raed Salem Aslyieh (left) from Jabaliya, hugs his relatives after the death of his son, Ahmed Raed Aslyieh (18), who succumbed to injuries sustained in an Israeli strike that killed eight other family members four months earlier, Gaza City, August 6, 2025
A BRITISH paramedic has told of his heartbreak when he put two dead children in body bags shortly after arriving in Gaza.
Sam Sears, 44, described his three weeks with front-line charity UK-Med as a “conveyor belt of carnage.”
On arrival, he was thrown straight into a mass-casualty incident in which two children aged nine and 11 died from blast injuries.
It was “particularly heartbreaking putting a child in a body bag, seeing their face for the last time,” as parents had no time to grieve, he said. He had no alternative as space was needed for the “steady stream” of patients coming in with blast, shrapnel, and gunshot wounds.
Mr Sears, who has also carried out humanitarian work in other countries, said that Gaza is like the Ukraine conflict or the earthquake in Turkey “times one thousand.”
He told of seeing a boy of about eight who was “lifeless behind the eyes — just numb” after losing his whole family in an explosion.
The East Midlands Ambulance Service paramedic said that a 16-year-old boy was left paralysed and needing amputation after suffering blast and shrapnel wounds and that his 18-year-old brother wept when told he would now have to care for him alone.
He also told of seeing more pregnant women and newborn babies suffering severe malnutrition because the mothers lacked the nutrients to breastfeed.
Mr Sears, who returned to his home in Kettering, Northants, at the end of July, added: “It might sound weird but I am keen to return to Gaza. What keeps you going is that you really are making a difference and saving lives. Gaza’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but moments like that that keep you going.”
UK-Med has been able to treat more than 500,000 patients at the two British government emergency field hospitals in Gaza with some £19 million of funding from the Foreign Office.
On Saturday, Britain announced another £8.5m would be delivered to Gaza via the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, part of a £101m British commitment to the Occupied Palestinian Territories this year.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state by September unless Israel meets a series of conditions.
