A man runs to rescue a child injured in an Israeli attack in the Khan Yunis area of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian file photo Reuters
Shama Tubaili started crying as she looked at herself in the mirror and waved a brush around her head as if combing her hair.
“I don’t have a single strand of hair left to comb. That’s why I feel so bad. I hold the mirror. Because I want to comb my hair. I really want to comb my hair again,” Shama told CNN, holding her head.
The wave of the comb on her head brought back memories for the eight-year-old from before October 7, 2023. She lived with her family in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Back then, she had long hair. She used to go out to play with friends. But since October 7, Shama and her family have joined the ranks of nearly 1.9 million people who have been forced to leave their homes one or more times.
(The child said) My friends are in heaven now. But one of them was found dead without a head. If he doesn’t have a head, how will he go to heaven? (The child) cried as he said this.
Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei, Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program
The Shamar family left Jabalia for the first time, moving south to Rafah, on orders from the Israeli army. As the violence continued to escalate, they fled again and took refuge in a refugee camp in Khan Younis in central Gaza.
On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian independence movement Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel. Israeli authorities claim that 1,200 people were killed. In addition, more than 250 people were taken hostage. The Israeli military launched a crackdown on Gaza that same day in retaliation. The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 48,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in its relentless bombing and ground offensive, a war that has been halted for nearly two months under a recent ceasefire agreement.
Two Palestinian children in a tent in a refugee camp in Rafah. Reuters file photo
The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said in a report in June last year that nearly all of Gaza’s 1.2 million children need psychological support, especially those who have repeatedly experienced the horrors of war.
“A generation has been traumatized,” UN human rights chief Tom Fletcher told the Security Council a week after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced in January. “Children have been killed. Many of them have died of starvation or freezing to death. Some have died before they even took their first breath — at birth,” he told the Security Council.
“Why isn’t my hair growing?”
Last year, doctors diagnosed Shama Tubaili’s hair loss as a result of nervous shock, particularly after an Israeli airstrike on her neighbor’s home in Rafah in August last year. Her daily life has been drastically changed since October 7. This may have also contributed to her alopecia, a condition that causes people to lose their hair or become bald.
UNICEF reported in June last year that nearly all of Gaza’s 1.2 million children need psychosocial support, especially those who have repeatedly experienced the horrors of war.
Late last year, a report by the War Child Alliance and the Gaza-based Community Training Center for Crisis Management highlighted the devastating psychological toll the Israeli offensive has taken on children in Gaza. The report surveyed more than 500 caregivers of vulnerable children. The report found that 96 percent of children felt their death was imminent. Almost half (49 percent) of the children expressed a “wish to die” because of the attack.
Shamar’s mental anguish was exacerbated by the taunts of other children about her hair loss. As a result, she rarely leaves the house. When she does, she wears a pink bandana on her head.
When CNN met Shamar’s family in September 2024, she pleaded with her mother, Om-Mohammed, “Mom, I’m tired, I want to die. Why isn’t my hair growing?” She then asked, “Will I be bald forever?” “I want to die and go to heaven and grow my hair,” Shama says.
As the fragile ceasefire agreement took effect, millions of displaced Palestinians began returning to their homes in northern Gaza (although most of them were in ruins). Shama Tubaili’s home was also destroyed by Israeli bombs. That’s why she and her family stayed in Khan Yunis. They didn’t even have the money to pay for the transportation back home.
Relatives mourn the body of a child killed in an Israeli strike in Rafah. Photo: AFP
In February this year, CNN visited the family of the child. At that time, he said, “Our house was destroyed in the bombing. I had many pictures in the house, certificates, many memories. I had clothes and many things. But the house was destroyed. I have never seen the house since then.” He added, “The transportation costs are very high. Besides, even if we go, I don’t know where we will stay. There is no water.”
Health workers also suffer from mental trauma
Providing mental health services in Gaza is always challenging. But Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei, director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP), said his staff have also been traumatized by the 15-month Israeli offensive, making it difficult for them to treat others.
“Most of my staff are working in displaced areas. Less than 10 are still in their homes. They are continuing to work,” Abu Jamei told CNN in an interview before the ceasefire in January. “While working in shelters, we are trying to give hope and support to the families.”
GCMHP uses a technique called drawing therapy, which allows children to express their feelings through nonverbal communication, Abu Jamei said. He recalled one incident in which a child was given a space to draw, which enabled him to talk to a psychologist about his trauma.
Abu Jamei said, “(The child said) My friends are in heaven now. But the body of one of them was found without a head. If he doesn’t have a head, how will he go to heaven? (The child) started crying as he said that.”
