How a history of trauma is affecting the children of Gaza

When Iman Farajallah was growing up in Gaza, she says she witnessed the first and second intifadas — Palestinian uprisings against Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank — and subsequent wars with Israel.

"The experience was so vicious, so scary, so harmful that there are no words that you can actually describe it," says Farajallah, a psychologist who now lives in the United States and works with refugee children at a community clinic in San Francisco.

"How can you describe when [an] Israeli soldier comes and jumps from the walls into our home, beating up my brothers, beating up my mother?"

Yet, as a child, she says, she wasn't able to talk to anyone about how terrifying those experiences were. "Nobody ever talked to me about my trauma," she says.

Now there is new trauma for children in Gaza.

The current conflict began on Oct 7, when Hamas attacked parts of Israel, killing 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200, including 32 children. In response, Israel began bombing Gaza and launched a ground invasion.

The children