"Fear and anxiety shape her childhood. In Gaza, children do not merely experience fear amid the constant bombardment and death. Fear has come to redefine the simplest concepts in every aspect of their lives. When my three-year-old niece, Rose, touched a wall for the first time, it was as if she were touching something alien something that didn't belong to her world. Her tiny hand reached out hesitantly, then recoiled suddenly, as if struck by an electric shock. Will it fall? she whispered, trembling."
"In her world, permanence is a fantasy, and everything around her is subject to collapse. Rose is the daughter of my eldest brother. With both of her parents away working one as a teacher and the other as a doctor I have been her main caretaker since birth, feeding her, snuggling her to calm her down, putting her to sleep."
Rose, a three-year-old in Gaza, has been traumatized by two years of genocide, with fear and anxiety shaping her perception of the world. She believes walls will collapse, distrusts air and water, and interprets sound as a warning of death. Her parents work away, so her uncle has been her primary caregiver since birth, feeding and soothing her; she has slept in his arms for two years. Living in a crowded tent with seven relatives, Rose and other displaced children suffer rashes and malnutrition from heat and lack of clean water. Hospital reception areas are overwhelmed and medical resources are scarce.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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