Gaza Families Are Trying to Save Their Children From Suicide

In Gaza, survival is no longer only about avoiding bombs or finding food. For many families, it has become a daily struggle to keep their children alive from something less visible but just as dangerous: despair.

A recent report from The New Arab describes how parents are now dealing with severe psychological crises inside overcrowded displacement camps. One man, Khalil, spends his days searching for his brother, who has schizophrenia and repeatedly wanders away from their tent. He explains that the family fears not others hurting him, but him hurting himself, often without understanding what he is doing.

“Once he disappeared for two full days. We thought he had died under the bombing. We found him in a distant camp sitting alone, laughing and talking to himself,” Abu Shaqfa recalled.

This kind of fear is becoming common. It reflects a deeper collapse, not just of infrastructure, but of mental stability across an entire population.

A generation under extreme psychological strain

Children in Gaza have lived through years of war, displacement, and loss, but the current situation has pushed many beyond what they can cope with. According to UN estimates, nearly all children in Gaza now need mental health support, with widespread reports of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

Some findings are especially alarming. Surveys have shown that many children feel their death is imminent, and a significant number have expressed a desire to die. Mental health workers describe this not as isolated trauma, but as a collective condition affecting almost every family.

One study indicates that about 67.8% of the population suffers from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. 79.3% suffer from anxiety and 84.5% from depression—extremely high rates compared to any other society in the world. 

Life inside the camps

For displaced families, daily life offers little relief. Many live in makeshift tents with limited food, water, or medical care. Parents must constantly monitor their children, not only for physical safety but for signs of emotional breakdown.

The story of Khalil’s brother highlights a wider reality: people with existing mental health conditions are deteriorating rapidly without treatment. But even children with no prior issues are now showing signs of severe distress.

Experts say children are experiencing persistent fear and panic; nightmares and insomnia; withdrawal or aggressive behavior, and thoughts of self-harm. In some cases, children as young as five have expressed a wish to die, a reflection of the overwhelming trauma surrounding them.

‘A girl who loved life’

Maryam Shehda, 31, was not mentally ill before Israel’s war. She was, as her mother described, “a girl who loved life,” living with her husband and two children, a simple life, planning to expand their house and buy a new bedroom.

Her life stopped in November 2023, when she went to the market to buy some necessities. While she was away, an Israeli airstrike on the family home killed her husband and her two children.

“When she came back from the market, she did not find the house, only rubble. She kept screaming and searching for her children with her hands between the stones. Since that day, Maryam has not been the Maryam we knew,” her mother told The New Arab, while sitting inside a displacement tent and holding the edge of her dress.

In the first weeks after the incident, Maryam cried constantly; then, suddenly, she fell silent for long hours, staring at a single point in the void. After that, she developed severe depression, refused to eat or talk, and said she wanted to die to join her husband and children.

“Every day she tells me: Why did I survive? I should have died with them. She felt guilty because she went to the market and left them at home,” her mother said.

The family was unable to take Maryam to a psychiatrist. A few days ago, Maryam attempted suicide for the first time.

The weight on parents

Parents in Gaza are facing an impossible task. They must provide emotional stability while dealing with their own grief, hunger, and fear. Many have lost homes, relatives, and any sense of normal life. Entire communities have been displaced, and some children have been left without surviving family members at all.

Under these conditions, protecting a child’s mental health becomes nearly impossible.

One of the most painful aspects is the constant vigilance. Families describe watching their children closely, afraid to leave them alone even for a moment. The fear is no longer only about airstrikes or illness, but about what a child might do in a moment of despair.

While physical destruction in Gaza is widely documented, the psychological damage is harder to see but just as severe. Humanitarian organizations warn that this mental health crisis will have long-term consequences. Children growing up in such conditions may carry trauma for decades, affecting not only individuals but the future of entire generations. Even if the violence were to stop, the emotional scars would remain.

Source: The New Arab