Trauma for children in Gaza facing orphaning

So many children have lost one, if not both of their parents in Gaza due to Israel’s persistent attacks, waging their war on Palestine’s smallest members, according to the Middle East Eye on January 16^th.

As Israel attack more territory in Gaza, thousands of children are forced to become orphaned in many stages of their childhood. The large-scale formation of this represents the fear present in Gaza, with children orphaned through many forms, including but not limited to, injuries, disappearing due to enforcers, or being separated from their parent/s. With attacks so frequent and distressing, some children are relied upon by a parent who is mentally or physically hurt themselves.

The effects are devastating among both younger and older children, with young children losing language, becoming persistently upset or unsettled, or taking developmental steps back as their needs go unmet. They find themselves clinging to elders, grieving in their desperate attachments. Older children miss crucial stages of development, tending to skip adolescence and take on more adult roles for others.

Eldest daughters are particularly disposed to taking on these adult roles. Many become caregivers, using their position as oldest to provide care for suffering parents or siblings and many search for food to sustain those around them. They are not only supressing their own needs, but their fears, their trauma pushed back as they become responsible for adult matters.

In the case of one young girl, her dependency on her parents was shattered by her father’s death in an air strike, and therefore, with little to live off, she and her mother used what they had to make food and sold items to secure enough for them and her siblings. Her face carried the trauma, but she herself spoke of necessary responsibilities.

For a younger boy, his trauma was similar. His father was also killed in an air strike. But, in a child of a much younger age, he struggled with separation anxiety, looking to his mother to repair the grief. His anxiety continued into his emotional and physical development, suffering from the breaking of his security and safety.

Another girl in her adolescence described her fears around being discharged from the hospital. After being referred for her mental health, and described as uncooperative, she relayed that her lack of cooperation came from a place of fear. With no family to return to, she was frightened what awaited her beyond the doctors’ care.

For a young boy, his dedications to his family, having lost both parents and older brother, led to his reliance on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food point, which has been described as a dangerous place to visit. At recollection of his experiences, he described the horrors of what he had witnessed there, and the trauma of losing his parents. He continued to return there because his family needed food and he felt the responsibility lay with him.

Childhood has been taken from so many young children in Gaza, and continues to be, shattering their understandings of safety, security and trust.

All recounts included in this article were taken from Middle East Eye’s Bahzad Al Akhras, a Palestinian medical doctor, who experienced these accounts first hand.

Middle East Eye/ Maghrebi.org