“These are the hardest days yet,” is what the people of Gaza have been repeatedly saying since Israel violated its ceasefire with Hamas earlier this month, plunging Gazans back into the depths of panic, fear, and death.
For many, the ceasefire, which lasted two months and felt fragile from the start, has only exacerbated Gazans’ deteriorating psychological state and reinforced their sense of instability.
A study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) last year found that half of Gazan adults suffer from mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, as a result of the genocide that began in October 2023.
One such individual affected is 35-year-old Gaza resident Samah Al Kahlout, who shared her experience with The New Arab.
Last year, while being forcibly displaced from her home by Israeli forces, she saw many corpses strewn on the streets. Since then, she has been suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations and nightmares on a nightly basis.
“I ended up having to go to a psychiatric clinic in one of the health centres in the south of Gaza,” she shares. “I was prescribed medication which I have to take continuously. I also struggle with ongoing depression and I find it difficult to communicate with my family members.”
Despite seeking help, Samah adds that psychiatrists have been unable to come up with a definitive diagnosis for her mental health symptoms. Some have said it is bipolar disorder, while others have said it is schizophrenia.
In the face of these challenges, Samah says she sometimes wonders if death is her only solution.
Urgent need of support
Psychiatrist Dr Mai Al-Athamneh from Gaza comments on the trauma Gazans are enduring, stating that the impact of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Strip will take many years to recover from — if recovery is even possible.
“Prescriptions are no longer of any benefit,” Dr Mai tells The New Arab. “Mental health cases are too numerous to count, between those who were mental health patients prior to the latest genocide and those who are new patients, all suffering from the ravages of the war, displacement, poverty, and hunger.”
She continues, “We have begun to receive patients from all categories of mental health illnesses, particularly young people who were imprisoned during the genocide and exposed to severe imprisonment and torture, as well as women still suffering from the shock of losing their husbands or sons. Some have lost their entire families.”
In addition to these widespread issues, Dr Mai highlights the severe toll on Gaza’s children, who make up nearly half of the Strip’s population. She notes that a year and a half of genocide has severely impacted their mental health.
A study conducted by the Gaza-based Community Training Centre for Crisis Management (CTCCM) in December 2024 found that 96% of children felt that death was imminent.
Additionally, the study revealed that Gazan children exhibited aggressive behaviour, fear, despair, and severe anxiety as a direct result of Israel’s genocide.
Shortly after the ceasefire was announced in January, UN relief chief Tom Fletcher stated that up to one million children in Gaza were in urgent need of psychological support, and at the time of reporting, The New Arab received messages from women in Gaza saying their children continue to suffer from the mental trauma of genocide and displacement, with symptoms like incontinence, bedwetting, and insomnia.
One of them is 27-year-old mother Ummiya Shahada, whose husband was killed while volunteering in a first aid unit.
She explains that the shock of his death has led her eight-year-old son to develop multiple psychological and behavioural disorders.
“Since we received the news of his martyrdom, my son has not stopped asking about his father and is in denial about his death,” she says.
Shahada adds that since they returned to the north of Gaza after the ceasefire took effect, she has struggled with managing her son’s crying outbursts.
For Shahada, the loss of her husband has taken a heavy toll on her mental health, leaving her struggling with loneliness and desolation as she lives in the ruins of her demolished home.
“I just want to scream,” she shares. “I can’t sleep at night and I’ve lost my appetite for food.”
Psychological effects will be long-term
Similar to Dr Mai’s observations, psychiatrist Dr Alaa Awadallah from Gaza tells The New Arab that prolonged exposure to traumatic war content has significantly contributed to the emergence of psychological and behavioural disorders, affecting people’s self-confidence and trust in others.
He adds, “War trauma leads to feelings of despair and instability, increased anxiety and sadness, sleep problems, bouts of depression, and, ultimately, thoughts and perceptions that affect one’s behaviour and mood.”
In light of Dr Alaa’s findings, 40-year-old Hiam Hijazi’s case exemplifies the trauma many Gazans face.
Displaced 12 times throughout the genocide, Hiam lost her home and now suffers from chronic depression due to ongoing displacement and living in a dilapidated tent, leading her to attempt death by suicide three times.
“The continuous false propaganda from the Israeli Occupation Army’s spokespeople, their downplaying of the lack of [Palestinian] resistance, exaggeration of the losses in Gaza, and minimisation of the losses in the Occupation Forces had the greatest impact on my anxiety,” Hiam says. “At one point, I started to believe the Occupation Army’s narrative.”
Dr Tariq Al Mana’ma, another psychiatrist from Gaza, says the psychological effects of the genocide in Gaza will be long-term. He emphasises the urgent need to reopen psychiatric clinics once a permanent ceasefire is achieved.
He adds that this genocide has affected every group in Gazan society without exception.
“The effects of the genocide include long-term psychological and physiological damage to both adults and children, as well as poverty, malnutrition, disabilities, economic decline, and mental illness. The most prominent mental illness is war trauma,” he continues.
“War trauma results from losing family and friends, being injured, constant displacement, and witnessing painful scenes such as wounded people and martyrs, not to mention the widespread sexual assault that the media has not highlighted.”
As the world watches Israel destroy any remaining hope Gazans had during the brief ceasefire, Palestinians are left wondering if they will ever recover mentally from this genocide.
Haya Ahmed is a doctor and freelance writer from Gaza
