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‘In Gaza, every child is experiencing some level of trauma’
Hratche Koundarjian, from the War Child nongovernmental organisation, is among the people demonstrating today in central London at the “Red Line for Gaza” protest that we reported on earlier.
We’ve spoken to him about the physical and psychological effects of the war on the children in Gaza. Here’s what he said:
“The stories we are hearing are horrific, beyond comprehension.
“I think you can talk about the statistics of 17,000 children killed and the many hundreds of thousands more who’ve been injured, but the reality is the individual stories. I was speaking to a colleague yesterday who had visited Gaza and spoke of children playing in the bombed sites of craters just a few minutes after a missile had struck.
“The violence becomes so normalised that civilians are just trying to do their best to work around it."
War Child released a report last year that found about 94 percent of children in Gaza expect to die; nearly half hope for death. This is the worst place in the war to be a child by far; it’s absolutely horrendous. The situation needs to be resolved immediately.
“Normally, in a conflict, we would see roughly 20 percent of children experiencing some level of trauma – in Gaza, it’s every single child. “Every single child would need the assistance of War Child and other organisations to deal with the trauma that’s been inflicted on them.
“It’s going to take decades to sort out this problem that’s being caused in a year and a half. It’s going to be an ongoing huge humanitarian response to deal with not just the basic needs but the massive mental health crisis that people there are experiencing.”
‘Everyone in Gaza is hungry now’
The situation in Gaza for children and their families is “catastrophic”, according to Rachel Cummings, Save the Children’s humanitarian director.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, she said there has been no adequate food supply in Gaza for a very long time. The markets are empty and the water sanitation situation is not adequate to meet the needs of 2 million people, “who are all on the brink of famine”, she said.
She said in Deir el-Balah, she had seen “hungry people, children carrying empty bowls, looking for food, looking for water. It’s absolutely desperate here.
“We’re seeing an increased number of children in our clinics and our nutrition centres who are malnourished … We’re also seeing an increase in the number of pregnant women and breastfeeding women who are also malnourished,” she said, adding “everyone in Gaza is hungry now, and even in my team, I see visibly my team are thin, and also they cannot get food in the market.”
Number of people killed by Israel since start of war rises to 59,106
The Health Ministry in Gaza has released its latest daily update on the number of casualties in Israel’s war on Gaza.
In a statement, it said:
- The bodies of at least 77 killed people, including five killed in earlier attacks, arrived in Gaza hospitals during the past 24 hours.
- The overall figure includes five aid seekers, bringing the total number of slain aid seekers to 1,026.
- An additional 376 wounded people also arrived in hospitals over the past 24-hour reporting period.
- The figures bring the total number of people killed since the start of the war to 59,106, with another 142,511 wounded.
- A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the streets as ambulance and civil defence crews are unable to reach them.
