Razan al-Najjar, 21, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers on the border between Israel and Gaza over the weekend.
Anonymous accounts reported by Reuters also describe Najjar approaching the border with her hands clearly in the air.
Thousands attended her funeral, with observers saying the mosque was so full that people stood on the rooftops and streets around to pay their respects to her.
During the funeral, where her coffin was draped in the Palestinian flag, her father brandished her bloodstained white medical vest.
She has become an international symbol of the violence in Gaza, with thousands of tweets celebrating her work and life.
"She literally gave everything," her cousin Dalia al-Najjar told BuzzFeed News.
My first time seeing this sweet photo. I am so deeply grieved by the assassination of Palestinian Medic Razan al-Najjar who was just shot & killed by an Israeli sniper. This is a war crime. She was an unarmed & non-violent medic. https://t.co/Vl0ekUKZzo
Dalia, 22, who spoke from Istanbul where she had received the news, said her aunt, Najjar's mother, always described her daughter as like a "butterfly."
Razan al-Najjar, 21 year old Palestinian medic shot and murdered by Israeli snipers whilst treating injured protesters. Her funeral prayer was so full that people had to pray in the surrounding streets and rooftops of buildings. May Allah grant her jannatul firdaws, Ameen. https://t.co/8VdgZRbgVw
"She was someone who spread love and positivity around her," she said. "She’d be jumping around, touching everyone, making everyone happy."
This is Palestinian nurse Razan al-Najjar. She is 21 years old. Early today she was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers while treating wounded protesters in Gaza. Targeting medics is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. https://t.co/6Vx0fkn3cN
"After Ramadan, we have the Eid celebration, so she bought new clothes for all her siblings but one, and she said, 'I’ll do it next week.' But she couldn’t," Dalia said.
"She is a fighter for peace," Dalia said, describing how her cousin would log 10 hours out in the field evacuating and treating the wounded, even during Ramadan when many other first responders were struggling to cope. "Every day, with all her clothes covered in blood [she would come home], and her mother would tell her, 'Why would you do this to yourself?'
"Her message to the world is that without weapons we can do everything. She is a symbol for peace."
Dalia said her cousin was "a great person, a great person. I would love people to honor that and to learn what she has been doing and be like her. A kind, selfless person."
Many also shared tributes to the medical worker, under the Arabic hashtag #ملاك_الرحمة (#AngelOfMercy).
I pray you meet the martyrs you were shedding tears for in Jannah InShAllah #ملاك_الرحمة
Najjar is the 119th person have been killed by Israeli forces in the latest round of demonstrations, part of what has become known as the #GreatReturnMarch.
استشهدت #ملاك_الرحمة دون ذرة رحمة لدماءها الطاهرة، قتلت فقط لأنها تحب أرضها وحاولت مساعدة ثوار الكرامة #رزان_النجار
Photographer Ashraf Amra, who worked out on the fields in Gaza documenting the protests, told BuzzFeed News he knew and remembered Najjar.
Before her death, Najjar spoke about being a woman in the field. “Being a medic is not only a job for a man,” she told the New York Times. “It’s for women, too.”
BuzzFeed News has contacted the IDF for comment.
