Mental Disaster After Israel-Hamas 11 Day War

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Ola’s eyes stared at the photo on a cell phone. The photo is a portrait of her sister and four children who were killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza some time ago.

“I hope we find them alive,” Ola said quietly.

The Gazan woman in her thirties wiped her tears as she stood in front of a psychologist from a local organization.

Ola is one of many Gazans who lost family members during 11 days of Israeli bombardment last month. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 66 Palestinian children and youth were killed in the attack.

From May 10 to 21, Israeli troops bombarded the Gaza Strip with missiles in response to rocket fire by Hamas militants who control the narrow territory of two million people.

One of the attacks hit the Al-Rimal area of ​​the Gaza Strip and destroyed the building where Ola’s sister, Abeer, lived with her family.

10 hours after the attack, rescue teams found Abeer’s husband, Riad, and their eight-year-old daughter, Suzy, behind the rubble. They are still breathing.

But Abeer and his four other children were gone forever.

“I can’t stop thinking about my brother and his son, who may still be living for hours under the rubble,” said Ola Ashkantana, who refuses to take anti-anxiety drugs.

“I’m shocked. Now I’m afraid of losing my own son,”

‘My Trauma’

In the room next to Ola, Riad cradled Suzy on her knees, as Gaza’s mental specialist Hassan al-Khawaja pushed her to try psychotherapy.

“I was suffocating. I even wanted to live with them in the graveyard,” said the Riad, whose family says he has barely spoken since the war took his loved ones.

“I’m traumatized. How will my feelings and thoughts come back? I will never be who I was before,”

Ola and the Riad are not alone. The fourth war since 2008 destroyed around a thousand apartments, offices and business centers.

But the few psychiatrists and psychologists in the area know that actual rebuilding will take much longer than just putting up a physical building.

“This is not the first time we have experienced war in Gaza,” said Khawaja, who said many residents experience post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

“We have to face a lot of trauma. I expect this PTSD crisis in the coming months,” he said explaining that with each new trauma and war, many Gazans face relapses and acute stress disorders, including symptoms of shock and denial.

If stress is not treated quickly, it can develop into PTSD. That could mean the work of the mental health nursing team is critical in the coming months to prevent an explosion of cases.

Meanwhile at Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia camp, northern Gaza, Bilal Daya suffered a broken arm, a hole in his calf, and a dislocated left leg. But the 24-year-old’s physical injuries weren’t what worried doctors the most.

Bilal’s nightmare on the next page…