GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The children of the Attar
clan have lived through three wars in just over five years, each time
fleeing their homes as Israel bombarded their neighborhood in the
Palestinian Gaza Strip.
Their psychological scars show. Some act out, others cling to their
mothers or withdraw, like 12-year-old Ahmed who sat by himself Monday on
a bench in the courtyard of a U.N. school where his family once again
sought shelter.
"They bombed very close to my house," said the boy, looking down and avoiding eye contact. "I'm scared."
Experts said it will be increasingly difficult to heal such victims of repeated trauma.
"For the majority of the children (in Gaza), it is the third time
around," said Bruce Grant, the chief of child protection for the
Palestinian territories in the United Nation's children's agency,
UNICEF. "It reduces their ability to be resilient and to bounce back.
Some will not find their way back to a sense of normalcy. Fear will
become their new norm."
The Attar clan lives in Atatra, a neighborhood in northeastern Gaza,
just a few hundred meters from Israel. Gaza militants often launch
rockets at Israel from border areas, turning them into flashpoints and
frequent targets of Israeli strikes.
Residents of Atatra fled their homes in Israel's three-week military
offensive in the winter of 2008-2009, during a week of cross-border
fighting in November 2012 and again over the weekend.
After Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over Atatra on Saturday
warning residents to leave, sisters Mariam and Sada Attar bundled a few
belongings into plastic bags and rushed out of their homes. They had 10
children in tow, as well as Mariam's husband Omar, who she said suffers
from stress-induced psychological disorders and can no longer function
normally.
The families sought shelter in the same U.N. school where they stayed
during the previous two rounds of fighting. In all, 20 U.N. schools
took in more than 17,000 displaced Gazans, many of them children, after
Saturday's warnings by Israel that civilians must clear out of northern
Gaza.
In this Monday, July 14, 2014 photo, resting in his father's lap after fleeing Israeli airstrikes, Bilal Attar, …Members
of the Attar clan took over part of the second floor, with more than 40
people sleeping in each classroom. Mariam, Sada, Omar and the children
were squeezed into one half of a room, their space demarcated by
benches. Another family from the clan stayed in the other half of the
room. A blanket draped across an open doorway offered the only measure
of privacy.
In the classroom, the scene was chaotic, with children pushing and
shoving each other and mothers yelling at them to behave. There was
nothing to do for children or grown-ups, except to wait.
Mariam Attar, 35, said they spent the night on the hard floor for lack of mattresses.
She sat on the floor, her back leaning against a wall, and held her
youngest, 16-month-old Mahmoud. She said her older children have become
clingy, some asking that she accompany them to the communal toilet.
Recalling the latest bombings, she said: "We felt the house was going
to fall on top of us and so the children started to scream. I was
screaming and my husband was screaming."
Her 14-year-old son Mohammed said the family cowered on the ground in
the living room during the bombing to avoid being hit by shrapnel. He
said the time passed slowly because they had no electricity or TV.
In
this Monday, July 14, 2014 photo, sisters Mariam Attar, center right, and Sada Attar, center left, rest wit
Mohammed and Ahmed, who is from another branch of the clan, said they
and other children often play "Arabs and Jews," fighting each other with
toy guns or wooden sticks as make-believe weapons. Arabs always win,
the boys said.
Rasem Shamiya, a counselor who works for the U.N. school system, said
many of the children show signs of trauma, including trouble paying
attention, aggressive behavior or avoiding contact with others. "They
are very stressed," he said. "Since these children were born, they have
never known peace."
Sada Attar, 43, said she worries her children and others in that generation will come to see violence as normal.
"These disturbed children are not going to be good for Israel's long
term interests," she said. "The child will naturally rise up and
confront the Zionist enemy with the stone, with fire, with everything in
their power."
Shortly after she spoke, the children got a brief break from the
chaos. Volunteers showed up in the school courtyard, carrying crayons,
paper, hula hoops and soccer balls. Ahmed and other boys started kicking
a ball around and he quickly became engrossed in the game.
Israeli children, especially in the areas close to Gaza, have also
been affected. Since 2000, Gaza militants have fired thousands of
rockets at Israeli communities. Psychologists have found high rates of
anxiety and bed-wetting among children in the border town of Sderot.
During the current bout, Israeli mothers were seen shielding their
children with their bodies as sirens warned of incoming rockets. Other
footage showed children weeping and cowering in fear as explosions were
heard near their homes.
Several Israeli children were hurt by rockets, including 11- and
12-year-old sisters playing outside and a 16-year-old boy who was
seriously hurt by shrapnel as he returned from a barber.
In Gaza, about one-fourth of the over 190 Palestinians killed in the past week were children, according to U.N. figures.
The children's fears are very real and parents in Gaza are
increasingly unable to reassure them, said Pierre Krahenbuhl, who heads
the U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees.
"Today, we met with families who shared with us that they have simply
no more answers to give when the children ask them why are the homes
shaking, why is there so much destruction," he said.
On Tuesday, some of the displaced, including Mariam, Sada and their
children, left the school and returned home, apparently encouraged by
Egypt's call for a cease-fire that was to take effect later in the day.
However, the hoped-for lull only lasted a few hours. By Tuesday
afternoon, Gaza militants had fired about three dozen rockets at Israel
and Israel resumed air strikes on targets in Gaza.
Some members of the Attar clan chose to remain at the school despite
faint hopes for a cease-fire. "I want to go home, but I am still
afraid," said 42-year-old Mohammed Attar, a relative of the sisters.
The Marina promenade in Dubai. Dogs have been banned from this area
