Children in Gaza show serious signs of trauma

Children in Gaza are showing more signs of trauma, 15 days after the war started, due to Israel's ongoing and intense bombardment.

Psychiatrists have told Reuters that there is no safe place to hide in Gaza and that "children have started to develop serious trauma symptoms such as convulsions, bed-wetting, fear, aggressive behaviour, nervousness, and not leaving their parents' sides."

"Our children suffer a lot at night. They cry all night, they pee themselves without meaning to, and I don't have time to clean up after them, one after the other," Tahreer Tabash, a mother of six children sheltering in a school, told Reuters. 

Over 1,756 children have been killed by Israeli bombings on Gaza so far, with the death toll expected to grow as Israel vows to launch a ground invasion. 

Entire neighbourhoods have been wiped out by Israeli air strikes, with some families losing dozens of their family members in the bombings. 

"When there's an explosion or any target getting hit nearby the children are always screaming, always frightened. We try to calm the younger ones, try telling them, 'Don't worry, it's just fireworks'. But the older ones understand what's going on," said Ibrahim al-Agha, a resident of the Khan Younis neighbourhood in Gaza. 

According to Agha, children will need a great deal of support after the war ends.

However, mental health experts in Gaza have said there is no such thing there as post traumatic stress disorder because the trauma in the enclave is continuous, with repeated bouts of armed conflict stretching back nearly two decades.