Mental health in Middle East conflict zones: How are people dealing with psychological fallout?

Zedan, a patient suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is in medical consultation at the mental health centre of the Bajet Kandala camp for displaced Yazidis near Dohuk, northwest of the Iraqi capital. (File/AFP)
Short Url
Updated 15 July 2021
Follow

Mental health in Middle East conflict zones: How are people dealing with psychological fallout?

  • Studies show high incidences of depression in Tunisia, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq
  • Almost 1 billion people worldwide live with a mental illness

ABU DHABI: Almost all 10 to 19-year-olds in the Gaza Strip are exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to their exposure to security threats and violence, according to clinical psychologist Dr. Thoraiya Kanafani.

And a 2020 Arab youth survey found that nearly a third of all young people living in 15 countries in the region know at least one person suffering some form of mental illness.




Palestinian children carry household items they recovered from the rubble of a building, destroyed by Israeli strikes, in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip on May 21, 2021. (File/AFP)

Kanafani told Arab News that studies show high incidences of depression in Tunisia, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

In the Gaza Strip, 97.5 percent of 10 to 19-year-olds have PTSD, a mental health condition that results from experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event.

The Palestinian crisis and other major events in the Middle East have caused an increase in mental illness.

Almost 1 billion people worldwide live with a mental illness, but more than 75 percent of those with psychological disorders fail to receive treatment, according to a 2021 World Bank report.




A Syrian man suffering from mental issues looks outside a window at al-Waalan special needs centre in northern town of Aldana near Syria's second largest city of Aleppo on February 14, 2019. (File/AFP)

“Every year, close to 3 million people die due to substance abuse. Every 40 seconds, a person dies by suicide. About 50 percent of mental health disorders start by the age of 14,” the organization said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a 2019 report that one person in five (20 percent) living in a conflict zone is estimated to have depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

“Among people who have experienced war or other conflicts in the previous 10 years, one in 11 (9 percent) will have a moderate or severe mental disorder,” the WHO added.

In May, 11 Palestinian children, who were receiving trauma therapy, were killed in their homes by Israeli airstrikes.

Asked if seeking treatment while experiencing continued attacks in a conflict zone is still effective, Kanafani said: “Studies suggest that some type of intervention and treatment for children in war is effective to an extent, especially those that help children build coping skills.”




Palestinian children take part in a four-week summer activities programme organised by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) which include sports, games, music and crafts, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 08, 2021. (File/AFP)

She added that children living under continued attacks develop a constant fear of violence and suffer from long-lasting anxieties as well as physiological responses to stress. It is beneficial to support their existing coping strategies and educate them on other tools that may help, she said.

In Yemen, about one in five people suffers from mental illness due to the long-running conflict in the country, according to a 2017 study by the Family Counselling and Development Foundation.

“Mental health care remains scarce in Yemen. Mental illness is stigmatized, and the proportion of psychiatrists per population is insufficient. Some of the few existing mental health services have even closed as a result of the pandemic,” ReliefWeb, a humanitarian information service provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in a statement.




People displaced by conflict receive food aid in the Khokha district of Yemen's war-ravaged western province of Hodeida, on April 20, 2021. (File/AFP)

Yemen has the added difficulties of damaged infrastructure as a result of the civil war, Dr. Kirin Hilliar, assistant professor of psychology at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, told Arab News.

“Reports suggest that only 51 percent of all healthcare facilities in the country are fully functional,” she added. Hilliar further said there are limited mental health services — a stigma that is also evident in many countries in the region. 

The Syrian crisis has led to about 207,000 civilian casualties since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. About 25,000 of these were children, according to a 2021 report by Statista.




Syrian patients sit in a yard at a mental health clinic -- the sole such facility in the rebel-held north of Syria -- in the town of Azaz, near the border with Turkey, on July 6, 2017. (File/AFP)

Another 2017 report by the International Review of the Red Cross said over 2.4 million homes have been damaged, 67 percent of the industrial capacity has been destroyed, 45 percent of health centers are no longer functioning, and 30 percent of educational institutions have been demolished.

This has plunged 89 percent of Syrians into extreme poverty. This critical situation in the country has left those living through the crisis at high risk of psychological damage.

“In 2018, it was reported that only 80 psychiatrists were working in Syrian territories, and psychologists were not trained or licensed in the country. However, the WHO and other NGOs have helped in providing training to health professionals, so they feel more capable to provide psychiatric and psychological services to those in their communities,” Hilliar said.

Wars and extremist attacks in the region have affected not only those witnessing them, but also social media users who are being exposed to negative news every day.




 In this file illustration photo taken on April 7, 2021, a smart phone screen displays the logo of Facebook on a Facebook website background, in Arlington, Virginia. (File/AFP)

Reports of killings, torture and bombings are taking over social media. Users might not even notice how much negative information they consume daily and the effects of that on their mental health.

Referring to Palestine, Kanafani said social media has been an important tool for spreading awareness about the truth of what is happening there.

“The negative consequence for many individuals who are viewing all the content is survivor’s guilt as well as emotional fatigue. Viewers who do not live in Palestine are experiencing strong feelings of helplessness, injustice and frustration. The consistent nature of these feelings may lead to emotional burnout,” she added.

Hilliar said that it can be hard for many people to read and watch details of negative events happening around the world. This type of content can make people feel helpless after witnessing the suffering of others, she added.




A woman uses her mobile phone to check Facebook and other mobile apps in Yangon on February 4,2021. (File/AFP)

A 2020 report by Cleveland Clinic, a US academic medical center, said that social media “doom scrolling” can cause negative thoughts and mindset which can affect a person’s mental health.

“Consuming negative news has been linked in research with greater fear, stress, anxiety and sadness,” the report said.

Kanafani said that the Middle East lacks mental health funding, resources and workforce, while stigmatization and lack of proper awareness also leaves people reluctant to seek treatment.

The highest number of psychiatrists in the region, according to Kanafani, are found in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Lebanon, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE following with less than five psychiatrists per 100,000 population.

“Positively, we are certainly seeing an increase in the provision of mental health facilities in the Middle East, though the rate of growth varies widely across different countries,” Hilliard said.

She added that the UAE, for example, is seeing an increase in mental health services.


Head of controversial US-backed Gaza aid group resigns

Updated 26 May 2025
Follow

Head of controversial US-backed Gaza aid group resigns

  • Jake Wood says he accepted the role as head of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation "to help alleviate the suffering" in Gaza
  • But he is stepping down because “it had become clear that implementing the organization’s plan was not possible”

WASHINGTON: The head of a controversial US-backed group preparing to move aid into the Gaza Strip announced his abrupt resignation Sunday, adding fresh uncertainty over the effort’s future.
In a statement by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), executive director Jake Wood explained that he felt compelled to leave after determining the organization could not fulfil its mission in a way that adhered to “humanitarian principles.”
The foundation, which has been based in Geneva since February, has vowed to distribute some 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.
But the United Nations and traditional aid agencies have already said they will not cooperate with the group, amid accusations it is working with Israel.
The GHF has emerged as international pressure mounts on Israel over the conditions in Gaza, where it has pursued a military onslaught in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
A more than two-month total blockade on the territory only began to ease in recent days, as agencies warned of growing starvation risks.
“Two months ago, I was approached about leading GHF’s efforts because of my experience in humanitarian operations” Wood said.
“Like many others around the world, I was horrified and heartbroken at the hunger crisis in Gaza and, as a humanitarian leader, I was compelled to do whatever I could to help alleviate the suffering.”
Wood stressed that he was “proud of the work I oversaw, including developing a pragmatic plan that could feed hungry people, address security concerns about diversion, and complement the work of longstanding NGOs in Gaza.”
But, he said, it had become “clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.”
Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,939, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Wood called on Israel “to significantly expand the provision of aid into Gaza through all mechanisms” while also urging “all stakeholders to continue to explore innovative new methods for the delivery of aid, without delay, diversion, or discrimination.”

 


Israeli strike kills 20 in Gaza school housing displaced people, health authorities say

Updated 26 May 2025
Follow

Israeli strike kills 20 in Gaza school housing displaced people, health authorities say

  • Medics said the dozens of casualties in the strike on the school, in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City, included women and children

GAZA CITY: An Israeli strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza killed at least 20 people and injured dozens, local authorities told Reuters early on Monday.
Israel stepped up its military operations in the enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas' military and governing capabilities and bring back the remaining hostages who were seized in October 2023.
Medics said the dozens of casualties in the strike on the school, in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City, included women and children.
Some of the bodies were badly burned according to images circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify.
There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military.
Despite mounting international pressure that pushed Israel to lift a blockade on aid supplies in the face of warnings of looming famine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel would control the whole of Gaza.
Israel has taken control of around 77% of the enclave either through its ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardments that keep residents away from their homes, Gaza's media office said.
The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas Islamist militants attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its two million residents from their homes.
The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.

 


Israel leader meets visiting US homeland security secretary: PM’s office

Updated 26 May 2025
Follow

Israel leader meets visiting US homeland security secretary: PM’s office

  • The visit comes as Israel ramps up its offensive in the Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with visiting US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Jerusalem on Sunday, his office said.
US and Israeli media reported that Trump had sent Noem to Jerusalem following the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington last week.
Noem was accompanied at her meeting with Netanyahu by US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement Sunday night.
The office added that during the meeting Noem “expressed her unreserved support for the prime minister and the State of Israel.”
The visit comes as Israel ramps up its offensive in the Gaza Strip in what it says is a renewed effort to destroy Hamas.
Earlier in the evening, Noem and Huckabee had visited the city’s Western Wall, where early celebrations for Monday’s “Jerusalem Day” holiday were taking place.
The holiday commemorates what Israel considers Jerusalem’s reunification under its authority after the city’s eastern sector was captured by its forces in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.


’Death is sometimes kinder’: Relatives recount Gaza strike that devastated family

Updated 26 May 2025
Follow

’Death is sometimes kinder’: Relatives recount Gaza strike that devastated family

  • The paediatrician, with no means of transport, ran from the Nasser Hospital to the family house in the city of Khan Yunis, a relative told AFP, only to be met with every parent’s worst nightmare

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Alaa Al-Najjar was tending to wounded children at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip when the news came through: the home where her own 10 children were staying had been bombed in an Israeli air strike.
The paediatrician, with no means of transport, ran from the Nasser Hospital to the family house in the city of Khan Yunis, a relative told AFP, only to be met with every parent’s worst nightmare.
“When she saw the charred bodies, she started screaming and crying,” said Ali Al-Najjar, the brother of Alaa’s husband.
Nine of her children were killed, their bodies burned beyond recognition, according to relatives.
The tenth, 10-year-old Adam, survived the strike but remains in critical condition, as does his father, Hamdi Al-Najjar, also a doctor, who was also at home when the strike hit.
Both are in intensive care at Nasser Hospital.
When the body of her daughter Nibal was pulled from the rubble, Alaa screamed her name, her brother-in-law recounted.
The following day, under a tent set up near the destroyed home, the well-respected paediatric specialist sat in stunned silence, still in shock.
Around her, women wept as the sounds of explosions echoed across the Palestinian territory, battered by more than a year and a half of war.

The air strike on Friday afternoon was carried out without warning, relatives said.
Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said it had “struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure” near its troops, adding that claims of civilian harm were under review.
“I couldn’t recognize the children in the shrouds,” Alaa’s sister, Sahar Al-Najjar, said through tears. “Their features were gone.”
“It’s a huge loss. Alaa is broken,” said Mohammed, another close family member.
According to medical sources, Hamdi Al-Najjar underwent several operations at the Jordanian field hospital.
Doctors had to remove a large portion of his right lung and gave him 17 blood transfusions.
Adam had one hand amputated and suffers from severe burns across his body.
“I found my brother’s house like a broken biscuit, reduced to ruins, and my loved ones were underneath,” Ali Al-Najjar said, recalling how he dug through the rubble with his bare hands alongside paramedics to recover the children’s bodies.
Now, he dreads the moment his brother regains consciousness.
“I don’t know how to tell him. Should I tell him his children are dead? I buried them in two graves.”
“There is no safe place in Gaza,” he added with a weary sigh. “Death is sometimes kinder than this torture.”
 

 


Israel’s latest strikes in Gaza kill 38 people including a journalist and children

Updated 26 May 2025
Follow

Israel’s latest strikes in Gaza kill 38 people including a journalist and children

  • Local journalist and several family members were killed by an airstrike that hit his house earlier on Sunday
  • Latest deaths resulted from Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north and Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours killed at least 38 people in Gaza, including children, a local journalist and a senior rescue service official, local health officials said Sunday.

The latest deaths in the Israeli campaign resulted from separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north and Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.
In Jabalia, they said local journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda and several family members were killed by an airstrike that hit his house earlier on Sunday.
Another airstrike in Nuseirat killed Ashraf Abu Nar, a senior official in the territory’s civil emergency service, and his wife in their house, medics added.
There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said that Abu Warda’s death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, to 220.
In a separate statement, the media office said Israeli forces were in control of 77 percent of the Gaza Strip, either through ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardment that keeps residents away from their homes.

The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements on Sunday that fighters carried out several ambushes and attacks using bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces operating in several areas across Gaza.
On Friday the Israeli military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.
Further details emerged of the Palestinian doctor who lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli strike on Friday.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed since Israel ended a ceasefire in March.

Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas militants’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza. Hamas has yet to release the 58 hostages it still holds.
The conflict has killed more than 53,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip. Aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.
Israel also blocked all food, medicine and fuel from entering Gaza for 2 1/2 months before letting a trickle of aid enter last week, after experts’ warnings of famine and pressure from some of Israel’s top allies.
Israel is pursuing a new US-backed plan to control all aid to Gaza, but the American heading the effort unexpectedly resigned Sunday, saying it had become clear that his organization would not be allowed to operate independently.
The United Nations has rejected the plan. UN World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain told CBS she has not seen evidence to support Israel’s claims that Hamas is responsible for the looting of aid trucks. “These people are desperate, and they see a World Food Program truck coming in and they run for it,” she said.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid for Gaza, said 107 trucks of aid entered Sunday. The UN has called the rate far from enough. About 600 trucks a day entered during the ceasefire.
Israel also says it plans to seize full control of Gaza and facilitate what it describes as the voluntary migration of its over 2 million population, a plan rejected by Palestinians and much of the international community.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Israel on Sunday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.