Mia Bider is a registered nurse and resident of the moshav of Netiv HaAsara in the Gaza Envelope. She works as a midwife at Barzlai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

On Friday 6.10.23, she began the evening shift, which began as usual.
At 6:30 a.m., in the middle of a delivery, sirens began non-stop. Since the delivery rooms are not protected, following the birth, Mia sent the father of the baby along with the baby to a protected space while she remained with the new mother in the delivery room.

At the same time, Mia noticed that her mobile phone was filled with messages from her friends “They’re shooting at us!”. Mia’s husband was on the moshav with their children, in a protected room with no electricity and no mobile phone reception. Every several hours, he would leave the secured space and send Mia a sign of life, while protecting them.

In light of the complex situation, Mia switched to helping to admit the wounded in the general ER at Barzilai Medical Center, including many residents and acquaintances from Netiv HaAsara. While she was working, a fierce battle was taking place in their moshav with terrorists, and for more than four hours, the rapid response team heroically fought with no outside assistance.

While at work, notice was received of three young boys, two of whom were her son’s classmates, who went fishing at Zikim Beach and who were declared missing since the morning. A location service tracked one of the mobile phones in the medical center.
When Mia heard this, she began roaming the departments and when she did not find the boys, she realized that she had to go to the place she did not want to check – the morgue. Unfortunately, that is where she found them.

The fighting in the moshav continued until the afternoon, after which the IDF evacuated the residents, including Mia’s family. At the same time, Mia continued working until 1:00 a.m., comforting her relatives who had lost family members.

Ever since, Mia and her family have been living in her mother’s house in Atlit, occasionally meeting up with friends from the moshav who reside in hotels to cry and comfort each other.
Only 8 days after this immense tragedy, Mia returned to her position as midwife in the hospital.