The author of this story is anonymous for their safety.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip—Dressed in a Frozen Disney princess top and being comforted only by the Barbie lying in her lap, a 10-year-old girl explains that her family had tried to assure her they would be safe in their new shelter.
“I said there’s nothing safe as long as there are the sounds of planes and shelling,” Daren recalled. She may not be old enough for middle school, but she was right.
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The family spent months trying to avoid the Israeli bombing before disaster struck in November. “I left our home in Gaza City with my family, first to Al-Shifa Hospital and then—after Israeli threats to evacuate the north—we had to move to the Zawaida area in the middle of the Strip. But the Israeli army bombed the chalet.”
“Suddenly, there was smoke in the place, and the walls and ceiling collapsed,” she said. “I screamed from under the rubble, ‘I’m here, uncle—and my brother—please take me out.’”
After a long time under the rubble suffering from severe injuries, she managed to communicate with the relief teams that arrived in the dark to rescue her and her brother, 5. All the while she waited, she knew nothing about the fate of the rest of her family. It was only when she emerged that she learned the devastating news.
“Why did the Israeli army do this to us?” she asked. “If I had died with my family, it would have been better.”
Having lost almost all of her family during the war which began after the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Daren is suffering from feelings of isolation and enormous psychological pain.
“It was hard to find a way to tell Daren that she lost 30 of her family members. But she was one of the strongest children that helped us when she acknowledged the loss,” Dr Ismael Abu Rukba, the head of the psychosocial support department at the Ministry of Health, tells The Daily Beast.
“The most challenging aspect of psychological support is dealing with children who have lost one or both of their parents in the war. They come in wounded, and we struggle to find an appropriate way to communicate with them,” he said.
“Children primarily depend on the support and care of the adults around them, which abruptly ceases in wars due to the loss of those who provide care, or even the emotional absence of parents due to the war-imposed environment of fear, tension, and focus on survival instincts and providing protection. The absence of all that, coupled with the traumas of war, such as direct physical injuries (often accompanied by psychological wounds) and direct exposure to scenes of death and killing, leaves lasting psychological effects on them throughout their lives.”
Abu Rukba added, “Daren’s case was one of the strongest in determination and willpower.”
Seated on her bed at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, she described a deep desire to escape this nightmare. Despite physical injuries, with fractures in her legs and wounds on her face and hands, and despite the long treatment she requires, Daren remains determined to make a full recovery. When she grows up, she wants to become a doctor to help others survive.
Other children have found it more difficult to cope with the emotional trauma.
The world of Mohammed Al-Shareef, 7, was shattered when his mother fell victim to an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp. They had been separated from his father for years, so Mohammed’s life revolved around his mom. The bond they shared was irreplaceable.
The trauma of losing his mother in such a tragic manner has left the young boy inconsolable. Attempts to reconnect him with his father, who is currently hospitalized, are proving challenging, leading him to find solace in the care of his mother’s aunt, Um Khaled, 63.
“He is crying incessantly and refuses to eat or sleep, overwhelmed by the profound grief of losing his mother. It is agonizing to contemplate how we will navigate his emotional turmoil once we leave the hospital in a few days,” Um Khaled told The Daily Beast.
Compounding the already dire circumstances, despite Mohammed's evident need for ongoing care for injuries sustained in the same air strike, medical professionals have advised the family to take him home due to a lack of available space in the hospital.
As the world watches, the plight of young Mohammed highlights the immense challenges faced by families caught in the crossfire of conflict, leaving us all to question the human toll of such devastating events.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, children make up approximately half of the population. That means there’s around 1 million children suffering this trauma.
The Gazan child doesn’t feel safe anywhere, exposed to the possibility of leaving their home at any moment only to return and find it leveled. This isn’t even a new experience for most children in the Strip who have experienced at least one war before this.
Yusuf Najm, a counselor, has provided significant psychological support for children at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, but he says the required support—for both for children and adults—far exceeds the capabilities of the medical and psychological teams in Gaza.
“There are wounded children who come to the hospital with post-traumatic stress disorder, presenting cases of anxiety and depression. However, there are thousands of children in tents suffering from involuntary urination and many frightening psychological symptoms that no one is trained to address,” he said.
“Even adults can’t manage this long war. The lack of hygiene standards, the spread of diseases and lack of water and food affected the mentality of all displaced families.”
In addition to all of that, the counselors are themselves under great strain. “The psychological support team has lost many members of their families, and they have also become victims. Additionally, we lack the logistical resources to assist us in providing support for these children here,” Najim said.
Dr. Samaah Jaber, a consultant in psychiatric medicine and director of mental health services at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, tells The Daily Beast, “It is certain that the ongoing war in Gaza will have immense and painful psychological effects on the people of the Strip, and these effects will extend for a long period even after the military operations come to an end.”
Dr. Jaber considers good mental health in the current situation in Gaza a form of unobtainable luxury, along with shelter and decent food. Strong mental health fundamentally requires a state of stability and the availability of a peaceful life. That is not possible here.
