An injured Palestinian child. Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour/The Palestine Chronicle.
A new study of the psychological impact of the war on Gaza’s children has found that 96% of children feel death is imminent, with 49% wishing to die because of the war.
Conducted by the Community Training Centre for Crisis Management (CTCCM) with support from the War Child Alliance, the organizations said the study “paints a harrowing picture of children’s mental health in Gaza.”
In a first of its kind report, our Gaza based partner Community Training Centre for Crisis Management asked injured, separated and disabled children and their caregivers about the toll of the ongoing war on their lives. Their answers are devastating but sadly not a surprise.
1/5 pic.twitter.com/RbOCJyVG63
— War Child UK (@WarChildUK) December 12, 2024
Over 500 children, parents and caregivers, from families where at least one child is disabled, injured or unaccompanied were interviewed for the needs assessment study.
“We asked injured, separated, and disabled children and their caregivers about the toll of war on their lives,” a CCTM spokesperson said in a press statement on December 12. “Their answers are devastating—but sadly, not surprising. This study reinforces what we have seen, heard, and witnessed for more than a year. Children are traumatised by this war, and we must respond.”
Severe anxiety, hopelessness
The study also concluded that 92% of children are not accepting of reality, 87% display severe fear, 79% suffer from nightmares, 77% avoid talking about traumatic events, 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression and “many more show signs of withdrawal and severe anxiety, alongside a pervasive sense of hopelessness.”
*Content warning: distressing content*
According to caregivers of vulnerable children:
– 96% feel death is imminent
– 87% display extreme fear
– 79% suffer from nightmares
– 49% wish to die because of the war2/5
— War Child UK (@WarChildUK) December 11, 2024
The survey, conducted in June 2024 of 504 households, also reveals that 88% of families have been displaced multiple times, with 21% forced to move six or more times.
“Psychological destruction”
Most families live on just £100 a month/£3.28 per day, grappling with soaring prices for food and essentials due to the ongoing blockade and restrictions on humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, 80% of breadwinners are unemployed, with nearly 1 in 4 (24%) of the families surveyed “now led by a child aged 16 or under.”
“This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,” said Helen Pattinson, the CEO of War Child UK.
Children in Gaza experience trauma beyond their endurance!
Children in Gaza endured unimaginable horror. They deserve an immediate ceasefire and a chance for a peaceful future!!!! pic.twitter.com/fRhuz5uq02
— Chris Hutchinson (@ChrisHu34451470) December 11, 2024
“Alongside the leveling of hospitals, schools and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war,” she stressed.
Pattinson called on the international community to “act now before the child mental health catastrophe we are witnessing embeds itself into multi-generational trauma, the consequences of which the region will be dealing with for decades to come.”
The psychological toll on children “was severe,” the study found, “with high levels of stress manifested in symptoms such as fear, anxiety, sleep disturbances, nightmares, nail biting, difficulty concentrating and social withdrawal.”
Unaccompanied children
It is estimated that at least 17,000 children are unaccompanied or separated from their parents, according to the report.
“These unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) face significant challenges,” the report stated, including “a heightened risk of exploitation, abuse and other serious violations of their rights.”
“Separation from family members is a profoundly painful event that can have lasting detrimental effects on children’s development and mental health,” the report stated.
Lost academic year
The war has severely disrupted the educational system in Gaza, the report said, with survey results showing that 54% of caregivers reported a need for tutoring classes, 35% needed stationery, and 1% requested learning devices.
“The academic year of 2023 was lost, and there is a possibility that 2024 will be lost as well. Since the conflict began, formal schooling has ceased entirely,” said the report.
Displaced Palestinian children continue their education at makeshift schools in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/dHZ5igisnd
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) December 10, 2024
The survey results indicated that “61% of children require individual and group psychosocial sessions, 40% need recreational activities, and 29% need camps to support their wellbeing.”
Moreover, caregivers themselves struggle with mental health issues which impact their ability to care for their children, highlighting the urgent need for psychological first aid (PFA) sessions for whole families.
Pattinson said a ceasefire must be “the immediate first step” to allow War Child and other agencies “to effectively respond to the intense psychological damage children are experiencing.”
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Staggering death toll
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,805 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 106,257 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by “friendly fire.”
Women and children
Palestinian and international organizations highlight that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of numerous Palestinians, mostly children.
A new study has found that almost half of children in Gaza wish to die, as a result of the trauma they have been forced to endure.
Every single supplier of arms to Israel has blood on its hands — and the world will never forgive them.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) December 12, 2024
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt, in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
