Rebuilding Gaza would be incomplete without healing the psychological wounds

Children in Khan Younis, Gaza, petrified of Israeli air raids. Getty

One thing of which we can all be certain is that there will be consequences to what many legal experts are describing as a genocide in Gaza.

It is difficult to wrap one’s head around the excruciating pain being endured by Palestinians in the territory. We only know the rough outline of the devastation. Tens of thousands have been murdered in aerial bombardments, more than 100,000 have sustained serious injuries, the majority of homes have been demolished, and, as a result of Israel’s blockade, mass starvation is affecting more than one million people. In addition, schools and hospitals have been destroyed, and other essential services to provide support for births, illnesses, deaths and grieving, and treatment of the psychological wounds of war have been largely terminated.

We know that most of the dead and wounded are civilians, with the majority being women and children. We also know that upwards of 4,000 people have lost limbs. And many wounded children are the only survivors in their families, making them maimed orphans without a support network.

Much has been written before about the indecency of those “day after” discussions that focus exclusively on matters of governance or bricks and mortar while ignoring the human dimension and long-term consequences of this conflict. Of course, reconstruction issues are important, and it is gratifying that working papers are being developed to address them. But building housing and infrastructure and creating administrative structures should not be the sole considerations; attention must be paid also to addressing and healing the physical and psychological wounds of this war.

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  A rescuer walks over rubble to look for survivors after an Israeli air strike on Khan Younis, Gaza, killed nine children. Reuters

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  Rescuers remove a covered body from Khan Younis. Reuters

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  A member of the emergency services hoses down a fire in Khan Younis. Reuters

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  Rescuers look for survivors and bodies inside a destroyed building in Khan Younis. Reuters

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  Rescuers carry an injured person on a stretcher in Khan Younis. Reuters

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  Members of the emergency services hose down a fire in Khan Younis. Reuters

Consider the psychological wounds experienced by Gaza’s children. We know that significant losses produce trauma. Losing a parent, a sibling or a friend, or even just moving to a new neighbourhood can be unsettling and have an impact on behaviour or mental stability. We also know that the degree of the shock can be mitigated by other factors. For example, the discomfort experienced by a child when their family moves to a new city, and when they lose friends and a familiar environment, can be somewhat offset by a supportive family.

But what if, as is the case in Gaza, your family has lost many loved ones (parents, children and close extended family members), been forced to move several times, and is now living in a tent without food or water? And then imagine that during the last ceasefire, children, already traumatised by loss, joined the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians making the long trek northward to their old homes. What they find upon arrival is that not only their home but also their entire neighbourhood is rubble and unrecognisable. And then they are forced to deal with hunger and the indignity of witnessing their parents begging for food.

We know that as we grow, our brains organise our experiences so that they make sense to us. We develop a mental map of our relationships and our place in the world in which we live. But what if, in the case of a 12-year-old returning to Gaza city, they find that there is no home, and the way to school, the neighbourhood store, a friend’s home, or the mosque or school have all have been erased. The compounding of multiple losses and extreme dislocation can only be seen as profoundly traumatising. Under these circumstances, it is impossible to calculate the severity of the impact on this child’s well-being or future development. What will become of them, their older siblings and their parents? How will their brains ingest and make sense of all of these losses?

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Given the seriousness of this situation, it becomes imperative not only to end the conflict and make plans for reconstruction and governance, but also to create strategies to address psychological and developmental needs. The US media focuses on the need to address the trauma of those young Israelis who have been held hostage in Gaza. This is obviously needed, but the extent to which the trauma experienced by Palestinians in Gaza has been ignored by so many, particularly in the US, is disturbing.

Why? In a word, racism. Many people, including many in America, apparently don’t see Palestinians as fully human, and so they fail to understand how destroying their lives, and denying them a normal present and a hopeful future, can result in deformities in their sense of self. If the rest of the world doesn’t demonstrate compassion and implement a comprehensive approach to rebuilding Gaza and restoring a sense of wholeness to its people, I fear what the future may have in store.

Even now, neither Israel nor the US has shown any interest in addressing the humanity of Palestinians. They are, instead, advancing plans that see this much-beleaguered people reduced to pawns to be moved about to help Israel achieve its goals.

The solution must come from a forceful and united stand taken by Arabs and key European states to sanction Israel for its crimes, force them to evacuate Gaza and end their occupation of Palestinian lands. Then and only then, under an international mandate, can reconstruction begin that will rebuild Gaza and help to heal the wounds of the Palestinian victims of this war.

If the international community does not take this course, the bitter seeds being planted today will be bearing fruit in future generations.