Fear and trauma in Gaza’s schools

Counselors and teachers are addressing the trauma and fears of students in Gaza [GALLO/GETTY]

Sunday, January 25, 2009
18:22 Mecca time, 15:22 GMT

By Alex Dziadosz in Gaza

As students filed into the courtyard of Asma elementary school in Gaza City for the first time since the Israeli offensive began, they were greeted by a bleak reminder of the violence that left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead and thousands injured.

A hole punched by an Israeli rocket scarred the courtyard latrine and blood soiled the wall beside it.

Asma is one of over 600 schools in Gaza – most of which reopened on January 24 – that is today facing a large number of post-war operational challenges.

Educators across the Gaza Strip are now considering whether to reschedule exams which were abandoned when Israel began bombing the territory on December 27.

Teachers are also faced with the task of teaching in rooms which had served as shelters for dozens of refugees.

Addressing the trauma

Inside the classrooms, debris left by the scores of refugees housed there until a few days ago still covered the floors – a box of tomatoes, empty bottles and, in some rooms, the shattered remnants of boards and chairs used for firewood in the absence of gas and electricity.

Why The Jews Especially Massacred The Palestinian Children?

The question of why the barbaric Israeli military aggression, which had been ongoing since the 27th December 2008, was focussing itself on slaughtering Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, has now been answered! As everybody knows, after two weeks had passed, the number of casualties caused by the holocaust have now reached over 900, and almost half of that number is made up of children. Other than because of the nature of the Jews, of not having pure hearts, the targetting of children is not a co-incidence.

A few months ago, in line with the Ramadhan of 1429 Hijriah, Khaled Misyal, the leader of Hamas, appointed around 3500 Palestinian children who have become hafidz (memorizers of Al-Quran. Those children who have memorized 30 juzs of Al-Quran have become a source of fear for the Zionist Jews. “If in the age of as young as that, they have already mastered the Quran, imagine what would they become in 20 years time from now?” Thus the thought that lingered in the mind of the Jews.