After almost 9 months of war, The mental health of Gazans is on the limit and especially that of the little ones. Children who have had to grow up suddenly, endure the pain of losing their loved ones and come to terms with the idea that they no longer have a home. Faced with a desperate situation, which has no signs of being resolved at the moment, Doctors Without Borders warns that Gazan childhood is about to be broken.

Davide Musardo, MSF psychologist, responsible for MSF mental health activities in Gaza, explains that what they are seeing in young children above all are “symptoms related to depression, because they have lost everything. “They have lost their parents, their siblings, their house, their toys, everything that makes their daily life normal.” Also, he warns, they are treating symptoms of anxiety, cases of acute stress and “Many times they prefer to die, rather than suffer the horror they are experiencing right now.”

Children are the ones who are taking the worst hits in this war, taking into account that they do not have the ability to explain what is happening to them. “They do not have the tools to face all these tragic situations,” laments Musardo and adds that the difficulty they face at this moment is that “there is no space for them to fully recover” because they have had to live in a constant state of exposure to trauma of all kinds, bombings and explosions. “And this does not allow them to start a healing process that should be done as soon as possible, because Without a ceasefire, it will be very difficult for them to overcome this situation.”according to the MSF psychologist.

In this situation, MSF has launched a series of play therapies with Palestinian minors. “Through play we overcome trauma, pain, how to handle it, how to deal with some emotions that arise and are not easy to manage,” says Davide Musardo. It is a key tool for them.