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GAZA - It doesn't take an air strike, or a telephoned warning that Israeli bombers are on the way, to terrify the war-weary children of Gaza.
Heightened surveillance is enough to cause nightmares. Lasers glow red in the night like the eyes of wild beasts. An enemy spy drone, like a pale fish-shaped balloon, hovers high overhead to eavesdrop and snap photos.
Heaps of fresh rubble cast weird shadows. And sonic booms trigger dread whenever F-16 fighter jets fly low.
In Gaza's grim conditions, mothers find it hard to tell if their offspring are crying out of fright, pain or misery. But when normally bickering children fall silent, it's the first sign of mental scars from constant fear.
"Dozens of children in every school show clear signs of trauma," said Hosam Sheikh Youssef, a seasoned social worker leading a workshop for professional counsellors in Rafah, southern Gaza.
The Welfare Association runs community psycho-social outreach programmes that help Palestinian families cope with the relentless conflict in the Gaza Strip.
They are not allowed to flee to safety in exile because the Israelis usually seal the borders and social collapse is a genuine risk.
"You can tell the children who need help," said Mawahib Ali Muhdi, a teacher attending the Rafah course. "Some jump at the slightest noise, whether it's a helicopter lifting off or a dropped knife. Others become slow learners.
"They tune out and lose focus, as if they do not want to feel any more. And if these children ever sense that their teachers are even a little afraid, they start to scream."
Gentle intervention begins with toys and games in the library after school, or by engaging in directed role play. Vivid memories of explosions, severed heads and mangled body parts are difficult to shake.
Eventually, aggression and pent-up violence can be released through computer games or team sports, teachers have found.
No child can remain unaffected by the mayhem. Playmates frequently are killed or maimed: at last count, Israeli guns had slain 88 Gazan children and wounded another 343 since mid-June, about one quarter of the total casualties of the Israeli offensives.
And women accounted for at least 29 of the civilian deaths and 108 injuries. The densely packed enclave is, in effect, the world's largest prison.
Chronic shortages caused by international boycotts against the Hamas Government left tens of thousands of trapped families to deal with thirst and hunger.
Art therapy sessions at after-school clubs in Gaza often run out of red crayons because there is so much blood depicted in the scribbled scenes of daily life under siege.
Social workers and psychologists are finding that some age-old techniques to channel masculine fury and competitiveness cannot be bettered. In Deir El Balah refugee camp's Rehabilitation Society a line of energetic boys, aged 10-12, have mastered the Dabkeh, a Palestinian folk-dance. They stomp, jump and kick, precisely in unison. For a few minutes, the misery outside is overcome by boyish noise and pride.
- INDEPENDENT
