Ramallah, West Bank (dpa) – Four-year-old Sultan Shaheen was asleep in his bed when a bullet shattered his bedroom window and parts of it lodged in his leg.
The bullet was fired from an Israeli army position on top of Mount Jarzeem, which overlooks the West Bank city of Nablus. Shaheen is one of many children who will probably never forget such terrifying experiences.
Palestinian child psychologist Cairo Arafat believes that what Palestinians call “excessive use of firepower” by the Israelis will have a lasting effect on adults, but even more so on children.
She pointed out that many children are showing symptoms which they never displayed before unrest broke out in the Palestinian areas at the end of September, including bed wetting, loss of appetite, depression, lack of concentration and violent behaviour.
The child psychologist lives in Al-Bireh, which borders on Ramallah – one of the main flashpoints of the violence in the West Bank.
Palestinians report more than 200 of their number killed and more than 10,000 wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers since the outbreak of the Intifada (uprising). A quarter of the victims are children below 18 years of age. Others are fathers who left behind young children.
“Mothers who come to me for counselling say their children are no longer able to concentrate on their studies or have lost their appetite,” Arafat said.
“Children are afraid to sleep in their rooms and want to sleep in bed with their parents. Some express fear when their parents, particularly the father, leave for work in the morning, afraid he may get killed and not come home.
“Others do not even want to go to school and if they do, then they do not want to play with their classmates or participate in school activities,” she continued.
Some mothers have also reported a change leaning toward violence in their children’s behaviour, she said. Children want to go and fight the Israelis.
Israel has been responding with heavy artillery gunfire and anti- tank missiles to the shots fired by Palestinian gunmen at army posts and Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
Several people have been killed in their homes as a result of this gunfire and many buildings, particularly in the West Bank towns of Beit Jalla, Beit Sahour and Hebron, have been severely damaged.
Palestinians who live in areas exposed to Israeli artillery have left their homes since the outbreak of what the Palestinians refer to as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, and are now living with relatives or have rented homes in safer neighbourhoods.
But not all children are able to leave the areas where there is excessive Israeli shelling. They are the ones most affected.
Arafat says these children wake at night to hear the sound of explosions and helicopters, afraid that their house will come under fire. Most of the almost daily shelling takes place in the late afternoon and at night.
Children see images on their television screens of apartment buildings that look just like their own coming under fire, making them fear their neighbourhood could be next.
Several Palestinian organizations have established hotlines to help families cope with their children’s behavioural change and answer questions what to do in these cases.
Arafat said these hotlines have never stopped ringing since the outbreak of the violence. Calls were mostly concentrated in the Hebron area, which so far has witnessed the highest number of shelling incidents at crowded residential areas.
Israel has imposed a round-the-clock curfew on the Israeli part of the divided city, where some 40,000 Palestinians live. Schools have been closed so that the some 15,000 children living in this part of the city are forced to stay at home.
The Palestinian Authority has taken steps to help families and children overcome their fears and problems.
Its Health Ministry is giving special courses in first aid and civil defence. The ministry sends psychologists to work with families of wounded or dead Palestinians, and with the wounded themselves.
The Education Ministry has appointed social workers and child psychologists to all schools in the Palestinian areas.
And Palestinian non-governmental and social organizations have pitched in to help children live a normal life again.
Social and art organizations have opened their doors to children to come to play, paint or participate in any activity just to get their mind off the violence. Theatrical groups have expanded their shows to include mainly plays for children.
Meanwhile, children march throughout the West Bank and Gaza carrying signs and shouting slogans calling on the United Nations to guarantee them international protection.
