Latest update : 2014-08-11
Children have paid a high price for the war in Gaza, accounting for a quarter of more than 1,900 Palestinians killed. Engaging the child survivors in games and workshops, the UN refugee agency is trying to help them deal with the trauma of war.
Attending an art class at a UN school in northern Gaza City, an eight-year-old girl shows off her finished work. Though coloured with pink and yellow crayons, the drawing is anything but joyful: it shows dead bodies sprawled outside a house that has been targeted by missiles.
She doesn’t want to add a sun to the drawing, she tells FRANCE 24, “because it’s war here”.
After more than four weeks of bombing and bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, some 400,000 children in Gaza are believed to suffer from some form of psychological distress. And only a quarter of them have received help. Psychologists say that it will take months, or in some cases even years, for them to recover.
To help the children take their minds off the horrors of war, the United Nations refugee agency has organised a host of activities, including art classes, sport activities and workshops about safety.
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