Traumatised by Israeli bombing, Gaza children 'scared of life'

Altogether, Gaza's Health Ministry says 66 children were killed in the fourth war on the Gaza Strip - most from precision-guided Israeli bombs, though in at least one incident Israel alleges a family was killed by Hamas rockets that fell short of their target.

Gaza City: Months after the 11-day-war in Gaza, children in the Palestinian territory are still grappling with the harrowing memories reminding them of the scenes of chaos and death.

Eight-year-old Maya from Gaza has become quiet, withdrawn and reclusive, her mother says, adding that the child no longer plays with other children.

Maya stares off into the distance a lot lately and at night, she wakes up multiple times, jumping at the slightest noise.

Months after the 11-day-war in Gaza, the child constantly experiences nightmares and regularly wakes up to ask her mother if they are being bombed.

Maya Abu Muawad's home was hit in May, during the latest war between Israel and Gaza's ruling militant group Hamas.

The airstrike hit their house on the first day of a major Muslim holiday without warning.

In the chaos, Maya was separated from her mother. Alone and afraid, she rode in an ambulance to safer ground.

For hours, the eight-year-old girl was locked in the wailing vehicle with the dying and wounded.

"The ambulance was carrying civilians who were not injured and people who were injured... Everyone was bleeding everywhere," says Yafa Fawzi Abu Muawad, Maya's mother.

It would be six hours before Maya was reunited with her parents.

Before the war, Maya was confident and independent. Now, she mostly sits alone.

Her behaviour is typical of children experiencing war trauma, says Dr Sami Owaida, the only licensed child psychiatrist for Gaza's 1 million children, who make up just under 48% of the population, according to the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.

Altogether, Gaza's Health Ministry says 66 children were killed in the fourth war on the Gaza Strip - most from precision-guided Israeli bombs, though in at least one incident Israel alleges a family was killed by Hamas rockets that fell short of their target.

With schools shuttered due to the war in May, the coronavirus and the summer hiatus, Gaza's children had little to keep them occupied as they waded through the wreckage.

Some of them are irritable, their parents say. Some wet themselves at night, are afraid to be alone, suffer from night terrors - all signs of trauma says Dr Owaida.

Now schools have reopened, and across town Riad Ishkontana was taking his daughter Suzy to her first day of classes.

The seven-year-old clung to him, he calmly convinced her to go with her teacher, reassuring her he would still be there when she's finished.

Suzy has become extremely attached to her dad, afraid any time he steps away from her.

For hours, they were separated under the rubble of their family's home.

More than three months have passed since rescue workers pulled Suzy from the ruins, her hair matted and dusty, her face bruised and swollen.

The sole survivors of the family, she and her father heard the fading cries of her siblings buried nearby.

Suzy's mother, her two brothers and two sisters - ages 9 to 2 - died in the May 16 Israeli attack on the densely packed al-Wahda Street in Gaza City.

Israeli authorities say the bombs' target was Hamas tunnels; 42 people died, including 16 women and 10 children.

Ishkontana says he was trapped under the rubble for six hours, Suzy for 12.

In that time he recalls hearing his older daughter Dana, 9, and youngest son Zain, 2, calling for him: "Baba, baba."

Later, Suzy would tell him that she could feel Zain under the wreckage.

These days, Suzy struggles to speak with relatives or detach from the mobile phone, spending hours playing games, stopping to look at web pages related to the attack.

When Ishkontana leaves to go on any errand, Suzy weeps and insists on going along - she fears losing him, too.

The children of Gaza live in a place where the piercing whine of warplanes, the tremors of airstrikes and the humming buzz of armed drones are familiar sounds, even in times of cease-fire. Where when war erupts, there is no safe place. Four wars and a blockade have crippled life over the past 13 years.

"The issue is not over, this is the Gaza syndrome, this is an ongoing trauma, it never ends," says Dr Owaida.