etc. Means other people beloved to Allah(sw) who gained martyrdom. As long as you get the ghist, I'm not going to list all of them, as that list would make your scroll very thin.
And your question was already answered above, you look at martyrdom in a negative sense, when it's one of the most blessed things.
As for the case of the Prophet(pbuh), his time nor his mission was up, Allah thus had to protect him until he could estalibash Islam.