‘I Was Terrified, Actually. It Could Be Me Next’
Even before the Israeli-Hamas war broke out last October, rates of depression among Palestinian adults in the West Bank and Gaza were 10 times the global average. Among children, the rates were higher still – and are getting worse as the Israeli siege nears the 10-month mark. A documentary look at the mental health of Palestinian youth.
After decades of trauma, Palestinians have high rates of depression, PTSD and more. Youth are at special risk
This story and video was produced and released by Undark, with support from the Pulitzer Center. It includes casualty figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health updated on July 24.
Since Israel’s siege began nearly nine months ago, the death and destruction in Gaza has been staggering, including at least 39,145 and 90,257 deaths and injuries, respectively. And as of March, an estimated 157,200 buildings in Gaza had been destroyed — nearly half of all buildings in the territory, including homes and key infrastructure.
Long before the latest escalation began, tensions in the region eroded Palestinians’ mental health. In 2022, a collaborative effort between The World Bank, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, and other organizations found that more than half of Palestinian adults in the West Bank and Gaza suffer from depression, which is about 10 times higher than the global average. The report also noted high rates of PTSD and other mental health issues.
That report did not include nearly half of the population in the region, though: Palestinian youth. And according to mental health experts, young Palestinians are particularly vulnerable when it comes to the region’s mental health crisis. Muna Odeh, a psychotherapist in Ramallah who runs a mental health hotline for Palestinians, told Undark that young people are at an age where they are seeking a sense of control in a situation that has no control at all. “This brings anxiety. Most of them, they feel hopeless, they feel helpless,” she said. “This time, it is hard for them. It is hard as a youth to live in a place where nothing is certain.”
PTSD typically stems from a trauma that has happened sometime in the past, said Iman Farajallah, a psychologist based in California, “and the first thing that you do in order to call or label the trauma that a person is experiencing is to move the victim from the conditions they are living in to a safer condition.”
PTSD typically stems from a trauma that has happened sometime in the past, said Iman Farajallah, a psychologist based in California, “and the first thing that you do in order to call or label the trauma that a person is experiencing is to move the victim from the conditions they are living in to a safer condition.”
“However, Palestinians are not able to move,” she added, which has been true for decades of Israeli occupation.
Even in the West Bank, which is relatively stable by comparison to Gaza, the ongoing conflict is taking its toll as people there watch the carnage on friends and family through the news and social media. While hearing explosions on the news, “it just twisted something inside of me, like I felt those emotions coming out. I was scared,” said Dalia Amra, a 10th grade student in Ramallah. “I was terrified, actually. It could be me next.”
The name “MindSite News” is used with the express permission of Mindsight Institute, an educational organization offering online learning and in-person workshops in the field of mental health and wellbeing. MindSite News and Mindsight Institute are separate, unaffiliated entities that are aligned in making science accessible and promoting mental health globally.
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