Gaza children struggle with memories of war

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Fourteen-year-old Ghasan Matar wont talk about the explosion that cost him his legs and
killed his brother. In fact, six months after the end of the Israeli war on Gaza, he still barely talks at all.
He spends most of his time staring at the walls and a huge poster depicting his older brother against a bloody
background of war featuring a Kalashnikov assault rifle and dead Israeli soldiers.
He says he never thinks about the day when the house was hit during heavy shelling of Gaza Citys Zeitun
neighbourhood. He insists he has no nightmares. Im doing fine, he says, and then clams up.
Hes very traumatised. He doesnt speak, tries to act like nothing happened, says social worker Nisrin
Ramadan during a visit to the boys crumbling brick home.
There are many cases like this of deep shock and loss of hope, says Ramadan, who works with the Society for
the Physically Handicapped.
More than 300 children were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed and many more were wounded during the
22-day Israeli offensive that ended on January 18, according to Palestinian figures.
And experts say a vast majority of the children who make up more than half of Gazas 1.5 million population, will
bear the psychological scars for years to come.
Children here have lost joy in life. They can laugh but there is no joy. They are unable to maintain hope, says
psychiatrist Eyad Sarraj, who heads the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme.
Seven-year-old Ahmed Salah al-Samuni smiles timidly as he is tossed a green plastic ball but quickly loses
interest, instead digging his nails into a couch in a brightly coloured room used for psycho-social counselling
sessions.
I remember that Israelis came and ordered us out. Shells were fired, he says when asked what he remembers
of the war.
Grandmother and grandfather are dead, he says, going on to list about 10 others who died when his house
was bombed. In all, 29 were killed in the attack, 18 of them from his direct family. I love Azza and want her
back, he says of his two-and-a-half year-old sister who was among the dead.
After the attack, he lay in a pool of blood. Its only when he cried out for his mother that she realised he was still
alive.
A large scar runs across his face, another along his hip. His nose is still deformed from the shrapnel wounds.
Just a few months ago he had regular fits of rage, when hed beat his brothers and break whatever was in his
path.
Hed scream out at night: 'The Jews are coming to kill me, his father says.
His psychological scars are also starting to heal. But its a long process. He has seen so many dead bodies,
says counsellor Sabri Abu Nadi.
A huge number of children went through horrible situations during the war, says Saji Elmughanni, the Gaza
spokesman for the UN childrens agency UNICEF. Nowhere was safe in the overcrowded sliver of land
wedged between Israel, the Mediterranean and Egypt.
All children here went through some degree of exposure to violence.
Many bury their feelings deep inside.
Njood Basal, 14, who suffered serious shrapnel wounds to the head, spends much of her time sitting on her bed
in a room where light filters through holes in the tin roof.
She chats on the Internet with friends in other countries, mainly the West Bank.
I dont tell them what happened ... they ask, but I always change the subject. I feel upset when I talk about the
situation.
Outside her house, a poster depicts her cousin Talat Basal. Her family says he was a martyr, a member the
Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement that rules Gaza.
Psychiatrist Sarraj says the exposure to extraordinary levels of violence is certain to turn many of todays children
into tomorrows extremists.
Im sure there will be a new breed of militants, theyll want a more militant group than Hamas to feel protected,
he says.
Reminders of the war that Israel launched to halt rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups are
everywhere: buildings reduced to rubble, shell-scarred facades, charred car wrecks.
At night, firing can be heard from the Israeli naval ships that ensure fishermen dont venture more than a few
kilometres (miles) from shore.
Mental health experts say many children in the tiny coastal enclave still live in fear of renewed military attack.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, the fear of another war is always there, says Sarraj.
Awad Sultan, 12, lives in one of dozens of tents set up north of Gaza City to house families who lost their homes
in the war.
He says he still has nightmares. Israeli soldiers try to catch my dad and destroy houses.
What was once his family home is now just rubble. The bicycle he loved riding is a charred piece of wreckage.
Now he plays with other kids from the camp in a large tent set up by social workers. We have fun, but whats the
use. We come back and think about the war.