Psychological trauma, nightmares stalk Gaza children

Mona al-Samouni, 12, is depressed and has nightmares about the day - just over a year ago - when she witnessed her parents and a number of relatives being shot by Israeli soldiers in their home in Zeitoun, southeast of Gaza City. Like a number of other children who witnessed horrific events during last year's 23-day Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, Mona has become increasingly withdrawn and silent - common ways of coping with tragedies, doctors say. Statistics about Palestinians who lost their life during the military operation vary, but NGOs place the overall number of persons killed between 1,387 and 1,417. The Gaza authorities report 1,444 fatal casualties, whilst Israel provides a figure of 1,166, according to the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Report. The killing of Mona's family is one of the most notorious incidents of last year's conflict in Gaza (see BBC slideshow) and was one of 11 incidents investigated by the UN Mission "in which Israeli forces launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome" and in which "the facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack". It said Israeli forces "killed 23 members of the extended al-Samouni family" on that day. "There is a significant deterioration in the psychological well-being of Palestinian children who are living in the Gaza Strip, especially after the recent war," Ayesh Samour, director of the Psychiatric Hospital in Gaza, told IRIN.