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TORONTO —
With a ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, parents in the region are worried about the long-lasting effect the 11-day war will have on their children as they deal with anxiety and trauma from the violence.
“It’s a nightmare. My heart is bleeding,” Jihan Qunoo, a refugee in Canada, told CTV News Channel on Thursday. Her children and husband are in Gaza.
She’s been trying to bring her family to Canada since 2019, something that she says has been slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. She says her children in the Gaza Strip are horrified by the violence around them.
“My kids are terrified during this, during the situation, and I’m trying to do my best to bring them here to Canada,” she says.
She spends most of her days on the phone with her three daughters, aged six, 10 and 11, when the connection works. But with power and internet disruptions, she can’t always stay in touch.
“Most of the time they don’t have internet so it’s hard for me, I’m calling them many times and I’m trying to be with them, or trying to get them. It’s hard to get them because of the internet, sometimes the connection is really bad,” she says.
Her kids, she explained, need their mom as they deal with the traumatic events of the last 11 days.
The fighting began May 10, when Hamas fired rockets towards Jerusalem after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Hamas and other militant groups fired over 4,000 rockets into Israel throughout the fighting, launching the projectiles from civilian areas at Israeli cities. Israel, meanwhile, launched hundreds of airstrikes that they say targeted Hamas military infrastructure. By Thursday afternoon, more than 200 Palestinians had been killed in the violence, 65 of them children. In Israel, 12 people were killed, two of them were children.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire Thursday, which went into effect at 2 a.m. local time Friday.
“They want to see me, they want to feel safe. I’m keeping my camera on trying to tell them that everything will be OK and, ‘I will get you. I will see you soon and I will do my best to bring you here,’” Qunoo said. “My kids are traumatized, they are so depressed.”
Qunoo is not alone in fearing that children are facing the brunt of the anxiety and trauma from the violence.
“Children all over the country are suffering,” Liat Rockah Zimroni, who lives in Israel with her family including three sons, told CTV News Channel.
She said that the blaring air raid sirens are causing extreme anxiety in her children.
“Having dinner with your children, suddenly, air raid sirens and you need to run to the shelter,” she said.
Rockah Zimroni, who is a parental advisor, said that children of all ages are experiencing various forms of anxiety and depression from the violence.
“The children are bedwetting in any age, all over the country,” she said, adding that some children are afraid to leave the bomb shelter for any reason, making it their bedroom, dining room and bathroom at once.
“There are children in Israel that for the last 12 days almost sleeping, eating, going toilets in the shelter,” she said.
Qunoo says she just wants her family to be safe and to be with them here in Canada.
“I’m desperate to have my kids, I can’t describe my situation now, and their situation,” she says. “It’s hard for all of us. It’s so frustrating. We are so frustrated, as a mom I’m desperate to hold my kids again.”
– With files from The Associated Press
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