The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says nearly all of Gaza’s 1.1 million children need mental health and psychosocial support amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment, displacement and dire living conditions.
Children suffer from nightmares, anxiety and paralysing fears due to air strikes and the loss of family members. Many become aggressive, withdrawn, or stop speaking, the UN agency said. The UN estimates that at least 19,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned since the war on Gaza began.
Mental health experts caution that the scars inflicted on these young minds could persist for generations.
Liz Allcock, the head of protection at Medical Aid for Palestinians said: “The catastrophe that has been inflicted upon children in Gaza for the last 15 months has really created an unparalleled and unprecedented mental health crisis amongst children of all ages.
“What we can hope to achieve is not to avoid the trauma that has been inflicted, but to try to mitigate or minimise the impact of that trauma, the violence and the abuse that is being perpetrated against children.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli military siege on the northern Gaza Strip has left about 5,000 Palestinians dead or missing after 100 days of brutal attacks that have only intensified amid talks of a potential mediated agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Another 9,500 Palestinians were injured as a result of the Israeli military operation in the north that was launched in early October, a medical source told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
Gaza’s Government Media Office on Sunday described the Israeli siege as “the most horrific form of ethnic cleansing, displacement and destruction” that has affected hundreds of thousands in the war-ravaged area.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said north Gaza is now a “ghost area” of vast destruction and rubble, but some people have managed to stay alive there, refusing to leave.
“We are seeing Palestinians being systematically targeted in every single place across the Gaza Strip. It doesn’t matter where you are – if you’re in a school, a shelter, a makeshift camp or even a hospital,” she said.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, the most prominent healthcare facility in the north, was torched and destroyed by Israeli forces in late December as part of the siege, and the fate of its arrested director Hussam Abu Safia remains unknown.
As Israeli politicians and settler groups openly discuss prospects of building settlements in north Gaza, the siege shows no signs of stopping.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the Mukhabarat area in northern Gaza City, witnesses said on Sunday afternoon. Israeli drone fire later killed a young man in the Shati refugee camp.
Overnight, there were heavy Israeli attacks on the northwestern areas of Gaza City. At least eight Palestinians were killed on Saturday when the Israeli military directly hit yet another school-turned-shelter in north Gaza’s Jabalia.
