UNITED NATIONS: The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported an increase in mental disorders amongst the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, especially among children, many of whom were already in need of mental health services and psychosocial support, amid repeated Israeli’s devastating attacks.
Over three violent days in early August, until a ceasefire was reached on 7 August, Israeli troops launched some 147 air strikes against targets in Gaza while Palestinian militants unleashed around 1,100 rockets and mortars into Israel, according to UN data.
Briefing the Security Council on 8 August, Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, reported that 46 Palestinians had been killed and 360 wounded, with 70 Israelis injured.
Seventeen Palestinian children were among those killed in Gaza in August, and the conflict is taking a heavy toll on all young people living in the Strip, Adele
Khodr, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
“For many children, this was their fifth conflict in the past 15 years. Many are already living with the long-term psychological effects of constant exposure to violence” noted Ms. Khodr.
After visiting a family in Gaza whose house was severely damaged in the conflict, Lynne Hastings, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is already deteriorating, and this latest escalation will only make matters worse. We stand ready to work with all parties to ensure that humanitarian needs are met.”
Speaking at a workshop organized by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Dr. Yousef Shahin, head of UNRWA’s Disease Prevention and Control Program, said that the Agency’s mental health and psychological support program, to treat more than 87,000 cases, is one of the most important such programs in the Gaza Strip.
“We are now working on the process of surveying cases, and if it is found that psychological support is needed, a file is opened, followed up, and treatment is provided. Common symptoms include depression and epilepsy, and there are other cases related to chronic physical diseases, which are of psychological origin”.
More than two million people live in the Gaza Strip: there is only one mental health hospital, with a capacity of fifty beds, to serve the five governorates in the Strip.
