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Human rights report: 91% of Gaza children suffer from psychological trauma after 11-day Israeli war

A Palestinian boy exits his house due to tear gas as Israeli forces search buildings following clashes, after the demolition of Palestinian shops in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem al-Quds’ neighborhood of Silwan, on June 29, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

Nine out of ten children living in the Gaza Strip suffer from some form of war-related trauma in the aftermath of the latest Israeli war on the besieged enclave which killed some 66 children over a month ago, according to a human rights report.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor) revealed in a Friday report that 91 percent of children in Gaza had suffered psychological trauma following the Israeli regime’s 11-day onslaught, which killed nearly 260 people, including entire families, injured 2,000 others, destroyed thousands of homes and inflicted drastic damage on the Gaza Strip’s economy and infrastructure.

The report, entitled One War Older, said around 50% of the two million people in the Gaza Strip are children under 15 years, noting that 241 children lost one or both parents as a result of Israel’s bombardments, about 5,400 children lost their homes, and 42,000 children had their homes partially damaged.

From May 10 to 21, Israel continuously bombarded the Gaza Strip, in a war prompted by the regime’s repeated assaults against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, in particular its forced displacement plots in the East Jerusalem al-Quds neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Mariam Dawwas, a field researcher at Euro-Med Monitor, said that they had documented hundreds of cases of direct targeting of civilians in their homes in the large-scale Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip.

“There is no much difference from the three previous military attacks on Gaza, except for one thing; Today I was among those whom I documented and photographed,” said Dawwas, who was displaced with her child after Israeli warplanes bombed their home.

“I ran with them and screamed in search of my little daughter and left my home after an Israeli fighter jet targeted the building,” she said, adding, “Today, my 3-year-old daughter Sophie and I are still trying to live normally while going through PTSD like the vast majority of Gaza resident.”

The report also indicated that some 2,500 pregnant women due to give birth within three months could suffer from complications in childbirth as a direct or indirect consequence of the Israeli bombardments.

On Monday, the United Nations cataloged numerous “grave” violations, including many deadly ones, by the Israeli regime against Palestinian children across the Palestinian territories in 2020.

The numbers came up in the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ annual report on “children and armed conflict.”

The violations took place against children in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, and the rest of the occupied territories throughout last year.

They targeted 340 Palestinian youngsters, including seven who were killed at the hands of the regime’s forces, the report said. The fatalities were caused “by live ammunition (6) and physical assault during arrest (1),” it noted.

“The United Nations verified the detention of 361 Palestinian children for alleged security offenses by Israeli forces,” added the document.


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