Discussing the impact on the mental health of children and adolescents in Gaza leads us to consider a different way of thinking about psychology, contextualizing it through the lens of history and occupation; since it is impossible to understand current events and their consequences without this context.
The mainstream media, subservient to the Zionist lobby for years, has dedicated itself to making reality, pain, and truth invisible, fueling dehumanization and colonizing the Palestinian people.
When discussing the context of mental health in Palestine, we must go back to 1947 and the Nakba, when the massacre of the Palestinian people, their displacement, and the denial of their freedom and identity began. Through the elimination of people and forced displacement, they managed to colonize part of Palestinian land. Growing up with this legacy is not easy. For 75 years, and especially in recent times, the Israeli system has sought to strip Palestinians of their humanity, their culture, their history, their heritage, to break their subjectivity, destroy their dignity and mental health, and reduce their existence to a shadow or the living dead, without hope in anything or anyone, with no other option than to surrender their lands and become slaves to fascist colonialism.
In this sense, what we see in Gaza is not Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but rather a lasting, repetitive, collective, historical, and transgenerational trauma—a trauma not based on a mental illusion, but the product of a real threat. They have spent years processing the grief of loss, displacement, physical absence, mutilation, dehumanization, humiliation, administrative detention, and torture; a phenomenon entirely new to the West, which has dedicated itself to rendering invisible the consequences of the occupation and the war's aftermath in Gaza.
An important fact is that the health system has been collapsing for months, a situation that also affects mental health care, creating vulnerable situations for children and young people; an age group that should be given special attention due to the fragility of their sense of self that this entails. Some of the effects on the mental health of children and young people are: depression, malnutrition, anxiety, anguish, acute stress disorders, enuresis; difficulty sleeping and nightmares, memory and concentration problems, suicidal thoughts, and episodes of violence; consequences of exposure to violence, mistreatment, torture, displacement, and the lack of time to process the grief of losing their family and friends, and their homes.
A few months ago, I watched a video of a group of young children playing in a hospital corridor. Their game was pretending to carry the body of a martyr. This speaks to children's ability to process grief through play, as a way of understanding what is happening and experiencing pain from a different perspective. Play offers a safe space to express emotions, process loss, and develop strategies for coping with reality.
Who doesn't remember the children saying they would rather die than live like this - hungry, homeless, without their mothers? They were making a plea to humanity, telling us, "I'd rather be killed, die, than live in these circumstances"—clear signs of depression and suicidal thoughts.
The war in Gaza has led to malnutrition in children and young people, which negatively impacts mental health, causing depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline due to deficiencies in essential nutrients. In children, it can also cause emotional instability, behavioral problems, and delayed neurological development; effects and consequences that will take years to recover from, and in some cases, the cognitive impairment will be irreversible. We spent months witnessing famine and malnutrition; today, the media seems to have forgotten the pain and what happened in Gaza because the ceasefire and the peace agreement have been enough to once again dehumanize and render invisible the suffering and plight of the Gazans, who, despite the influx of food, continue to be victims of the murderous colonialist system of oppression. This system does not allow the entry of healthy food, as only provisions rich in sugars and carbohydrates, which provide no nutrients, are allowed in, causing weight gain with zero nutritional value. The Israeli fascist supremacist system continues to control the bodies of the people. Gazan oblation, which, according to Michel Foucault, leads to the disciplining of the population, is carried out through two methods: disciplinary power, which focuses on the individual body, controlling their space and movement; and biopower, which manages the biological life of the population, that is, their health, birth rate, food supply, among other things.
Imagine the impact on the psyche of a child or adolescent having to take care of their younger sibling, having to go from being a child to being the "responsible" one for their family, the one who helps find sustenance, the one who fights against death for a sack of rice or flour. You can picture a 7-year-old feeding their 3-year-old sibling and walking for miles looking for a safe place, knowing that it doesn't exist. Let us try for a moment to consider the impact of children tortured in Israeli prisons, detained for throwing a stone, for defending their brother or mother, for protesting to a soldier who arrested their father, or simply for being Palestinian. Is it a sin to be Palestinian? Does being Palestinian make one not human, not a victim? Does one not have rights?
Finally, I would like to emphasize that, faced with injustice and despair, the Palestinian people, from the youngest to the oldest, have hope in God, in their community, in their own capabilities, and they yearn for justice.
The Palestinian people are a courageous people who possess Sumud (steadfastness), who fight against oppression with firmness and perseverance, who rely on empathy, solidarity, and a sense of community, where in times of crisis they care for one another. This concept is intimately linked to faith and resistance; without faith there is no resistance, and without Sumud there is no collective existence. From the depths of suffering, injustice, and despair, victory and the future are born. In Palestinian blood lies the triumph over the sword and death.
By Heba Smith (Uruguayan Psychologist and Human Rights Activist)
This article was presented at the conference on “Children; Victims of Violence in Wars and Terrorist Incidents” held on the occasion of the World Children’s Day, organized by Habilian Association (Iranian Families of Terrorism Victims).