JERUSALEM // The four-storey building of the Community Mental
Health Programme in Gaza City is damaged, its walls still standing but the
offices of its 150 employees wrecked by an Israeli bombing raid last week.
As Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants waited anxiously for Israel’s
ground invasion to unfold, Ahmad Abu Tawhina, the mental health programme’s
director general, said its services were needed more than ever.
Estimates from the United Nations are that at least one quarter
of the more than 500 Gazans killed so far in Israel’s operations are women and
children. More than five times that number are wounded.
But, psychologists said, none of Gaza’s civilians are being
spared feelings of fear and terror as the Israeli army moves deeper into the
tiny enclave.
Dr Tawhina admitted there was little in the current circumstances
his staff could do. Their computers and records have been destroyed and they are
working from home, largely without electricity, phones or the freedom to move
about.
Surveys in recent years have shown the rapid deterioration of the
mental health of Gazans, especially children, who make up more than half of the
Strip’s population.
According to a study by Dr Tawhina’s programme, conducted before
Israel’s current operations, every child in Gaza had been exposed to at least
nine shocking events. Many had seen people wounded or killed; 95 per cent had
heard explosions from shelling and 45 per cent said they had seen Israeli
soldiers beating or insulting relatives.
As a result, more than 80 per cent of children were diagnosed as
suffering from either moderate or major post-traumatic disorders. The survey
found that more than one third of boys between eight and 12 said they wished to
die in a suicide attack.
Research conducted by Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, in
2006 similarly discovered that 98 per cent of children had either experienced
first hand or witnessed incidents involving shootings or explosions. As a
result, bed-wetting, night terrors and emotional disorders were common.
Eyad Sarraj, a psychiatrist and founder of
the mental health programme, said his family was braced for the battles between
the Israeli army and Hamas that they fear may soon reach their neighbourhood.
Dr Sarraj has questioned the rationale for Israel’s invasion of
Gaza to “root out” militant groups. “When children see that their father is
unable to guarantee their safety, they will opt for someone else to do it for
them. And that means that one day they will join militant groups, possibly even
more extreme than Hamas itself.
“Israel is trying to give itself security, but it is doing
exactly the opposite by encouraging more extremism among the Palestinians.”
Before Israel’s tanks started rolling into Gaza on Saturday
night, a major topic on local radio shows was how parents could keep their
children feeling secure as Israel carried out its aerial bombardment.
Dr Tawhina, a regular guest, had little concrete comfort to offer
given that there is nowhere to hide and everywhere is a potential target. Keep
children indoors and distract them with games and activities, he said.
The staff of the mental health programme call this Gaza syndrome,
a living nightmare of imprisonment under siege and military assault that gets
worse by the day.
Mental health workers believe that Israeli policies in Gaza have
been designed for some time to inflict maximum psychological damage on Gazans.
After the withdrawal of Jewish settlers in 2005, Israeli fighter
planes began regularly creating deafening sonic booms during night-time flights
over the Strip. Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, justified the practice,
saying: “I want nobody to sleep at night in Gaza.”
A year ago, when the blockade of Gaza was already starving
inhabitants of food, fuel and medicine, Mr Olmert delivered a speech in which he
said: “There is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to
live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets.”
Nabila Espanioly, a psychologist in
Nazareth who specialises in childhood development, said that, although
television showed the physical effects of Israel’s invasion on civilians, it
would not be there to record the psychological aftershock.
“Children more than adults have not yet developed the mechanisms
to cope with feelings of helplessness and powerlessness. The violence Gaza’s
children are witnessing and experiencing becomes the model for future behaviour.
“This can already be seen in the role-playing games common among
children in the occupied territories of being soldiers and gunmen. In the
long-term, they will seek to deal with their psychological trauma and regain a
sense of power through violence because they have no other model. We are seeing
the next generation of suicide bombers being created right now.”
Ms Espanioly said these post-traumatic effects on children’s
mental health were widely understood. “Israeli strategists must be aware of
this, so one has to wonder how they think such … attacks on Gaza are going to
bring them peace or security.”
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