Feature: Bloodshed In Gaza Takes Shocking Toll On Children, Deeply Traumatised Survivors

(MENAFN- Nam News Network) GAZA, Oct 24 (NNN-XINHUA) – Abdul Rahaman, a Palestinian child, survivor of an Israeli airstrike that killed the rest of his family members, has become numb to anything around, since he was sent to al-Shifaa hospital a couple of days ago, said his aunt, Wafaa, in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Behind the door of the pediatric clinic, cramped with kids screaming and crying, due to pain from injuries, tight-lipped Abdul Rahaman lay on a bed with his eyes wide open in a trance. Sometimes, a teardrop or two fell down his face.

The boy used to be an active child in the six-member family, until he was critically wounded and orphaned in an Israeli strike that levelled the family's house, in the al-Shatea refugee camp.

“Abdul Rahaman was stuck with his cousin, between two walls, and was critically wounded in his legs, stomach, and arms. When the civil defence teams tried to rescue them, they found that his cousin was dead, while he was still alive,” Wafaa said.

Since then, completely baffled by the attack, the boy has not closed his eyes nor spoken any words to anyone. Occasionally, mumbling voices were heard, as if he was calling for his parents and siblings, according to Wafaa.

Up to now, no one has the heart to tell him that he has lost his mother, father, and three sisters.

“I don't know how to tell him what happened. The doctors said he was suffering from severe shock. He is the youngest kid, and he will not be able to bear it,” she said.

Malak, 9, was no luckier than Abdul Rahaman. As a child from an already displaced Palestinian family, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, she was injured in the hip and legs, and lost her mother and siblings in the airstrike that took place over their heads, while they were sleeping.

After being hospitalised, the girl asked about her parents many times, but no one had an answer for her, said her uncle Mohammed.

“I do not know how to help my brother's daughter deal with this tragedy ... There are no answers in war, only unprecedented, harrowing scenes of bloodshed and destruction,” the 39-year-old father of three told Xinhua.

“About half of Gaza's population are children ... most of those injured in the intense attacks in Gaza are children and women,” Waddah al-Shaer, a Gaza-based psychologist, told Xinhua.

The complete siege on Gaza, home to more than two million Palestinian people, and intensive Israeli regime's airstrikes, claimed to be targeting Hamas strongholds, have made this Israel-Gaza conflict the most intensive and violent war, civilians could ever experience in the enclave, according to the psychologist.

Currently, there is no safe place for them, due to continuous Israeli bombings, said al-Shaer, adding that, for many years to come, a child survivor has to live through psychological problems left by such a traumatic experience.

He urged the international community to pressure the Israeli regime, to stop its military escalation in Gaza.

The death toll in Gaza has risen to 5,087, including 2,055 children, 1,119 women, and 217 elderly people, in addition to 15,273 injuries, the Gaza Health Ministry said, yesterday.

Loujain, 11, had no time to take any of her toys and personal belongings, when her family escaped from a collapsed building. The girl told Xinhua that since then, she has been unable to sleep, fearing nightmares of war and explosions.

It was a short moment of fun when Loujain was playing with her sister Juliet and other displaced children in the hospital courtyard, before the sound of a new round of explosions made all the kids rush into the arms of their mothers.

Still, Juliet said afterwards that, she dreams of becoming a doctor to save more lives.– NNN-XINHUA

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