"Children ... have started to develop serious trauma symptoms such as convulsions, bed-wetting, fear, aggressive behaviour, nervousness, and not leaving their parents' sides," said Gaza psychiatrist Fadel Abu Heen.
More than 4,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza so far, including more than 1,500 children, while 13,000 people have been injured according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Conditions in makeshift shelters in United Nations schools, where more than 380,000 people are camped out in hope of escaping the bombardment, only compound the problem.
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," said Tahreer Tabash, a mother of six children sheltering in a school.
A 2022 report by aid group Save the Children found the psychosocial wellbeing of children in Gaza at "alarmingly low levels" after 11 days of fighting in 2021, leaving half of all Gaza children in need of support.
Persons:
Khan Younis, Mohammed Salem, Fadel Abu Heen, Tahreer Tabash, Tabash, Abu Heen, Ibrahim al, Agha, Nidal al, Angus McDowall, Crispian Balmer, Mark Heinrich Our
Organizations:
United Nations, REUTERS, Israel Little, Hamas, Thomson
Locations:
Gaza, GAZA, U.N, Israel, Gaza City, Abo, wailed