Tina Magnergård Bjers/TT
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Everything has fallen apart and death is ever present.
Gaza’s children are trying to cope with the horrors of war and confinement while the traumatic experiences make them vomit, shake and urinate.
– Young people suffer terribly, they live in complete terror, says Sahar Smoom, the organization War Child’s director for the Palestinian territories.
Vomiting, fever, panic attacks and headaches. The children who survive the constant bombing raids are not spared physically. The war between Israel and Hamas has entered its fourth week and all of Gaza’s children are victims.
– I am stressed, feel hopeless and helpless because I can neither save my son nor protect him, says the Palestinian psychologist Heba, who cannot give her last name for security reasons, on a recording from Gaza that was shared with TT.
– This must end soon. No one can handle what we are going through for very long.
Want to “die together”
Heba, who on a daily basis leads psychosocial programs for young people in Gaza City under the auspices of War Child, has spoken to TT during previous conflicts. In 2021, after eleven days of bombardment, she told of trying to calm her son with breathing exercises and gymnastics after each bombing.
Now everything is different and much, much worse.
It is almost impossible to reach people in besieged Gaza, so an interview with Heba cannot be carried out. Sahar Smoom, who works from an office in another location in the region, says that the psychologist and another colleague with their families were evacuated to southern Gaza. They have barely brought any belongings with them and have taken shelter in a small deserted house.
– 50 people are crammed into the house and all sleep in the same room. “If we’re going to die, we want to die together,” they say. It makes me despair, says Smoom.
On an audio recording, Heba’s eleven-year-old son testifies that he is so scared that he thinks he is going to faint. What he wishes now is to avoid hearing the bombs. And to be able to “go home” and meet your friends.
Similar testimony comes from the UN agency UNRWA. They have compiled information from parents who talk about acute psychological trauma and panic attacks in Gaza’s youth.
Emergency helpline
Sahar Smoom was in Gaza as recently as a week before the outbreak of war. Then she made strategic plans for the aid organization’s work there in 2024.
Now everything has been put to rest. But she says that even after the outbreak of war, the War Child team managed to deliver concrete help to hundreds of families. And now she is working intensively to create an emergency program for psychosocial support, a form of helpline where young people and their guardians can get help with panic and anxiety.
– People in Gaza have lived with blockades and war for 16 years, but they say that this is by far the worst they have been through, she says.
– It is not only about the number of dead but that there is literally no safe place in Gaza. Children cannot seek protection at home, at school or in shelters.
Add to that that food, water, medicine and fuel will soon run out in the area besieged by Israel. No normality exists and it is difficult to find meaningful employment that takes your mind off the constant bombing raids. Many children have lost their parents and are forced to take care of younger siblings.
Can heal?
In Gaza alone, more than 3,450 children are estimated to have been killed during the war that broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, according to figures published by the UN children’s fund Unicef.
Hamas, which is labeled a terrorist organization by the EU and the US, among others, then killed at least 1,400 mostly civilian Israelis in what in many cases were pure massacres. Among the victims were a large number of children.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gives children the right to education, protection and psychosocial support. At the moment, however, it is difficult to look up and think about healing. But Sahar Smoom emphasizes that it is possible to relieve the pain of children with trauma, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
– The interventions vary depending on what the child has been involved in. But the sooner we can start them, the better chance we have of helping.
FACT Background: Gaza and the children there
Gaza is counted along with the West Bank as part of the Palestinian territories. The strip of land is located at the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Egypt to the south but is otherwise surrounded by Israel.
Since the summer of 2007, the Gaza Strip has been ruled by Hamas, a movement that the EU and the US have labeled a terrorist. In Gaza, roughly 2 million inhabitants live on an area that is less than a third of Öland. About half of the population is under 18 years of age.
Mental illness among young people was high even before the current war broke out. The percentage of children who feel fear increased from 50 percent to 84 percent between 2018 and 2022, according to a study that Save the Children published last year. More than three quarters of Gaza’s young people then stated that they feel sad or depressed and over half of the children have considered taking their own lives. 60 percent engage in self-harming behaviour.
Warfare between Hamas and Israel has broken out several times in recent decades, including in 2008-09, 2012, 2014 and 2021.
The current war has been ongoing since October 7, when Hamas launched a coordinated attack on Israel. Thousands of rockets were fired, Hamas militia crossed the border into Israel and massacres were carried out in kibbutzim and at a music festival. About 1,400 Israelis were killed and Hamas also took over 200 people hostage. Israel responded by declaring war. They have besieged Gaza, bombed the area continuously and are said to be preparing a ground invasion with the aim of destroying Hamas.
More than 3,450 children have been killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, according to data published by the UN children’s fund Unicef. Also in the West Bank and in Israel, tens of children have been killed. Dozens of children are also among the hostages held by Hamas.
Read moreFACTSWar Child
War Child is a non-governmental organization founded in the Netherlands in 1995 that helps children process their experiences from war and armed conflict.
The organization directs relief efforts, education and psychosocial support to children, young people and families with children who are in or have fled war and conflict zones.
War Child is present in 16 conflict-affected countries. Last year, the organization’s efforts reached around 487,000 children, young people and parents.
Source: War Child
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