The head of a charity in the strip helping people traumatised by the conflict explains why he still has hope for the future
Dr Yasser Abu Jamei is an unlikely optimist, a psychiatrist running the biggest mental health charity inThe 365 sq km Palestinian enclave on the Mediterranean – a tiny strip of land regularly bombed, heavily blockaded and desperately poor – has provided a grim laboratory for testing how repeated trauma affects the human mind.
“The WHO [World Health Organization] says that in areas of conflict 10% of the population will develop moderate to severe mental health illness,” he said. Gaza has a population of more than 2 million, suggesting hundreds of thousands are suffering or are at risk. “Of course, you cannot erase the memories that you have, but at least you can add more memories that will let the previous ones, the sad ones, go.”
There is nowhere to seek safety when Israel launches one of the military operations that have become a semi-regular feature of life since 2014. Israeli authorities say the military operations are necessary in self-defence, because Hamas targets Israeli citizens with rockets from the Gaza Strip.
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