Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 69,785 Palestinians. At least one-third of the victims have been children, and as of September 2025, over 50,000 children have been killed or injured (UNICEF 2025). In Gaza’s hospitals, medics have even coined a heartbreaking acronym:WCNSF (Wounded Child, No Surviving Family) to describe those left orphaned.
Survival, however, comes at a heavy cost. Many of Gaza’s youngest have witnessed the deaths of their mothers, fathers, siblings, and friends. Research shows that more than 96% of children fear imminent death and 77% express feelings of sadness (War Child UK, 2024). As articulated by Oxford scholar and physicist from Gaza, Saleem Lubbad:
The Israeli occupation and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine are fundamentally about denying Palestinians their right to self-determination. This is done by directly killing them, destroying their homes, forcing them out of their land, and also achieved by controlling how they see the world, manipulating their relationship with everything around them, be it physical, like home and land, or intangible, like their aspirations and even sense of community and family life. Israel systematically instils the notion that whatever Palestinians have — or might have — is inherently vulnerable and temporary, subject to being taken away at Israel’s will.
At Healing for Gaza, children and youth make up 41% of our patients. As we are in a unique position to walk alongside them and bear witness to their trauma, it is important to us to platform their voices. As our 13-year-old patient Joanne says, “[Considering] the feelings of children is important in order for a community to be whole.”
We recently spoke to six of our young patients who have been displaced by the genocide and have been in therapy with us between 6-12 months. In their tender and deeply insightful answers, they reveal not only the scars of trauma but also extraordinary reserves of passion, love, and strength.
Early Exposure to Trauma
What impact does the experience of constant loss and disenfranchisement erasure have on a Palestinian child? Since 2008, Gaza has been subjected to Israeli military violence and siege. By definition, all of Gaza’s children have only ever known war, which has been a constant reality for the last 17 years.
At HFG, we have witnessed children struggle with grief, rage, despair, confusion, and other emotions expressed as withdrawal, dissociation, eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and even psychosis. These are in addition to more familiar symptoms of flashbacks and night terrors. At the same time, every child we have met puts on a brave face for their family and is doing their best to protect their own parents and siblings from their pain.
Q: What would you like to tell the world about how a child in Gaza feels?
Pride and Resistance
The past two years of genocide have been painful to endure, and trauma is ongoing as Israel violates the ceasefire almost daily. Yet, even in the face of relentless trials, the children we interviewed remain proud, their determination unwavering, and their love for their homeland unshaken.
Q: The past two years have been very difficult. What is one thing you are proud of?
Therapy Works
Therapy has become a lifeline for Gaza’s children, offering them a rare refuge. Guided by our principal child trauma psychotherapist, Dr. Alexandra Chen, sessions often integrate talk therapy, breathwork and tapping, expressive therapies such as art and dance, EMDR, and other developmentally appropriate clinical interventions to help children process the trauma they have experienced and often continue to experience.
Therapy with the children does more than ease anxieties or improve sleep. Each session provides a unique space for children to openly express their fears, and allow children to feel understood, validated, and accompanied in their pain. At Healing for Gaza, healing begins with finding ways to carry the weight of trauma together, while making space for concrete hope.
Q: What do you like about therapy?
Big Dreams, Big Plans
No child should be forced to carry the weight of war. Instead of play and discovery, children in Gaza are confronted with hunger, displacement, and loss. The trauma is not fleeting; it is chronic, reshaping their sense of safety and belonging.
Therapy has then become a refuge for expressing and processing the heaviest, darkest parts of their feelings without feeling guilty of burdening someone else in their family. Remarkably, despite unimaginable devastation, our young patients have begun to heal and continue to dream. Gaza’s children hold fast to their ambitions and share with us a diversity of dreams:
Q: What do you want to do when you grow up?
Messages to the World
Listening to Gaza’s children, we are reminded of how they embody courage beyond their years and spread wisdom to those around them – an outlook on life that requires us to meet them where they are, and walk with them through the heaviness of their trauma. At Healing for Gaza, we stand beside them as they share their hopes and fears, helping them find strength in their own words. Their voices remind us that caring for their mental health is essential to sustaining the foundation of their future.
Q: What is one message you have for the world?
Note: All images of and responses from the children featured in this blog post are shared with the consent of the children and their parents.
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Heidi Ho is pursuing degrees in public health and journalism at Northeastern University. She is driven by a passion for social justice, health, and science. She previously worked with a non-profit organization in Ecuador and currently writes for multiple publications. Heidi currently serves as a communications intern with Healing for Gaza.
Laura Albast, HFG’s Communications and Social Media Coordinator, contributed to the writing parts of this interview. Laura is a Palestinian journalist, photographer, and media analyst. A professional Arabic-English translator, Laura has also joined Healing for Gaza’s medical interpreter cohort.