This is the moment a BBC journalist broke down in tears while reporting from inside a hospital in war-torn Gaza as he described having ‘seen things I can never unsee’.

BBC Arabic reporter Adnan El-Bursh fell to his knees and removed his glasses before wiping his face as he was overcome by emotion at the Al Shifa Hospital yesterday.

Mr El-Bursh and his team had discovered that their friends, relatives and neighbours were among those injured or killed and he described how ‘bodies lay everywhere’.

Hundreds of seriously injured people were filling the hallways of the strip’s largest medical facility amid traumatic scenes, with bodies lying in corridors and outside.

Speaking to the camera, Mr El-Bursh, who is a father, said: ‘This is my local hospital, inside are my friends, my neighbours. This is my community. Today has been one of the most difficult days in my career. I have seen things that I can never unseen.’

It comes as the United Nations said today that Israel’s military had told some one million Palestinians living in Gaza to evacuate the north. Also today:

BBC Arabic journalist Adnan El-Bursh was overcome with emotion during a report from Gaza

BBC Arabic journalist Adnan El-Bursh was overcome with emotion during a report from Gaza

BBC Arabic journalist Adnan El-Bursh was overcome with emotion during a report from Gaza

Mr El-Bursh wept after seeing the situation in Al-Shifa Hospital, with 'bodies everywhere'

Mr El-Bursh wept after seeing the situation in Al-Shifa Hospital, with 'bodies everywhere'

Mr El-Bursh was left in tears after seeing the situation at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza yesterday

Mr El-Bursh wept after seeing the situation in Al-Shifa Hospital, with 'bodies everywhere'

Mr El-Bursh wept after seeing the situation in Al-Shifa Hospital, with 'bodies everywhere'

Mr El-Bursh wept after seeing the situation in Al-Shifa Hospital, with ‘bodies everywhere’ 

Mr El-Bursh's cameraman Mahmoud also wept after seeing his friend Malik lying wounded

Mr El-Bursh's cameraman Mahmoud also wept after seeing his friend Malik lying wounded

Mr El-Bursh’s cameraman Mahmoud also wept after seeing his friend Malik lying wounded

In Mr El-Bursh’s report, a young girl with a bloodied face was seen sitting upright in a hospital bed while crying and covered in dust as a doctor tended to her legs.

Mr El-Bursh, who lives in Gaza and has worked for the BBC since December 2010, revealed the child had lost her home and her relatives were dead.

He said: ‘This young girl’s home was destroyed. Her relatives have been killed and she needs help. My daughter is the same age. I want to give her a hug.’

Mr El-Bursh also said that amid the ‘chaos’, his cameraman Mahmood saw his friend Malik in the hospital having survived – but his family were dead.

He also spoke to a mother who was sitting next to the bodies of her dead relatives. She told him: ‘We were sleeping and they were bombarding the house like everyone else. We don’t have any resistance fighters in our building. All the building is full of residents. 120 people live there.’

He also said: ‘The corridors of Al Shifa Hospital are filled with bodies. The morgue can no longer cope. The bodies of the dead have to be laid on the floor outside the hospital entrance.

‘You never want to become the story, yet in my city I feel helpless as the dead were given no dignity and the injured all left in pain.’

Meanwhile, one million Palestinians living in Gaza were told by Israel to evacuate the north, according to the UN. 

It is an unprecedented order for almost half the population of the sealed-off territory ahead of an expected ground invasion against the ruling Hamas militant group.

The UN has warned that so many people fleeing en masse would be calamitous.

Adnan El-Bursh is pictured (far left) in an image on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2017

Adnan El-Bursh is pictured (far left) in an image on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2017

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 while reporting on violence in the Gaza Strip

The BBC's Adnan El-Bursh is pictured in 2012 while reporting on violence in the Gaza Strip

The BBC’s Adnan El-Bursh is pictured in 2012 while 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

Mr El-Bursh (right), who has worked for the BBC since 2010, with friends in an undated photo

Mr El-Bursh (right), who has worked for the BBC since 2010, with friends in an undated photo

Hamas, which staged a brutal attack on Israel this week, dismissed the order as a ploy and called on people to stay in their homes, adding to the widespread panic.

The evacuation order, which includes Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, sparked confusion among civilians and aid workers already running from Israeli air strikes and contending with a total siege and a territory-wide power blackout.

Palestinians would only be able to flee south within Gaza as Israel has completely sealed off the territory, a narrow strip of land about 25 miles long.

Hamas said Israel’s heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip killed 13 hostages, including foreigners, held by the group.

The group’s military wing said the 13 were killed in various locations over the past 24 hours.

It did not give the nationality of the foreigners, and there has been no confirmation over the claims from Israel.

The Israeli military had said it would operate with ‘significant force’ in Gaza in the coming days and is calling on civilians to evacuate.

Spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Israeli forces ‘will make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians’.

He added: ‘Out of an understanding that there are civilians here who are not our enemy and we do not want to target them, we are asking them to evacuate.’

The directive came on the heels of what the United Nations said was a warning they received from Israel to evacuate 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza within 24 hours.

An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 12

An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 12

An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 12

Palestinians stretcher an injured man following an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip Thursday

Palestinians stretcher an injured man following an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip Thursday

Palestinians stretcher an injured man following an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip Thursday

Suffering in Gaza has risen dramatically with Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine, while the territory’s only power plant shut down for lack of fuel. 

The mortuary at Gaza’s biggest hospital Al Shifa overflowed as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin is set to visit on Friday, a day after American secretary of state Antony Blinken was in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The war has claimed at least 2,800 lives on both sides since Hamas launched an incursion on October 7.

Inas Hamdan, an officer at the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza City, said: ‘This is chaos, no-one understands what to do.’

She said all the UN staff in Gaza City and northern Gaza had been told to evacuate south to Rafah.

Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, claimed there was no way more than one million people could be safely moved within the timeframe specified, saying: ‘Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if … you’re going to live.’

She added: ‘What will happen to our patients? We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals.’

The flurry of directives was taken as signalling an expected Israeli ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such a decision. On Thursday it said that while it was preparing, no decision has been made.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon

Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon

Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon

Human Rights Watch said it verified videos taken in Lebanon on Oct. 10 and Gaza on Oct. 11 showing 'multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border'

Human Rights Watch said it verified videos taken in Lebanon on Oct. 10 and Gaza on Oct. 11 showing 'multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border'

Human Rights Watch said it verified videos taken in Lebanon on Oct. 10 and Gaza on Oct. 11 showing ‘multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border’

White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings - but they can cause serious burns and fires, with weaponised white phosphorus having a devastating effect

White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings - but they can cause serious burns and fires, with weaponised white phosphorus having a devastating effect

White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings – but they can cause serious burns and fires, with weaponised white phosphorus having a devastating effect

Israeli occupation aircraft launch white phosphorus bombs west of Gaza City on October 11, 2023 in Gaza City, Gaza

Israeli occupation aircraft launch white phosphorus bombs west of Gaza City on October 11, 2023 in Gaza City, Gaza

Israeli occupation aircraft launch white phosphorus bombs west of Gaza City on October 11, 2023 in Gaza City, Gaza

The UN said the broad evacuation warning it received for all of Gaza’s north also applies to all UN staff and to the hundreds of thousands who have taken shelter in UN schools and other facilities since Israel launched round-the-clock air strikes on Saturday.

‘The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,’ UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

‘The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.’

Another UN official said that the UN is seeking clarity from Israeli officials at the most senior political level.

A ground offensive in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

Hamas’ unprecedented assault last Saturday and smaller attacks since have killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers – a toll unseen in Israel for decades – and the ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza, according to authorities on both sides.

Israel says roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed inside Israel, and that hundreds of the dead in Gaza are Hamas members. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

As Israel pounds Gaza from the air, Hamas militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel. Amid concerns that the fighting could spread in the region, Syrian state media reported that Israeli air strikes on Thursday put two Syrian international airports out of service.

A fireball erupts from an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 12

A fireball erupts from an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 12

A fireball erupts from an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 12

Israeli tanks move near Gaza border as Israeli army deploys military vehicles around the Gaza Strip, Israel on October 12, 2023

Israeli tanks move near Gaza border as Israeli army deploys military vehicles around the Gaza Strip, Israel on October 12, 2023

Israeli tanks move near Gaza border as Israeli army deploys military vehicles around the Gaza Strip, Israel on October 12, 2023

Israeli artillery fire rounds into the Gaza Strip from the border on October 12, 2023

Israeli artillery fire rounds into the Gaza Strip from the border on October 12, 2023

Israeli artillery fire rounds into the Gaza Strip from the border on October 12, 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ‘crush’ Hamas after the militants stormed into the country’s south on Saturday and massacred hundreds of people, including children in their own homes and young people at a music festival.

Amid grief and demands for vengeance among the Israeli public, the government is under intense pressure to topple Hamas rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza.

The number of people forced from their homes by Israel’s air strikes soared by 25% in a day, reaching 423,000 out of a population of 2.3 million, the UN said on Thursday.

On Thursday, the Israeli military pulverised the Gaza Strip with air strikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion and said its complete siege of the territory would remain in place until Hamas militants free some 150 hostages taken during their grisly weekend incursion.

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