She seemed to represent the collective suffering of Gaza’s children: a little girl, eyes cast down, a tear edging beneath her lashes, blood smeared over her face, anguish written into her face.
Her picture was taken in the aftermath of the shelling of what was supposed to be a refuge from war, a UN school in Jabaliya.
“The world stands disgraced,” UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl said after 15 people died and more than 100 were injured.
The girl whose image spread around the world is Najia Warshagha, who at the age of nine is already a veteran of three bloody and devastating conflicts in Gaza.
Over four weeks of this war, at least 447 children have been killed and 2,744 injured, according to the UN.
Thousands more — Najia among them — are deeply traumatized.
Nine days after the shelling of the school, Najia perches on a sofa at the relative’s house where she is staying, a solemn child whose hands twist into tight little balls as she haltingly recalls what happened.
“I was in classroom No. 1, sleeping. There was a huge boom. My mother hugged us, then another missile landed. I was screaming and crying,” Najia said.
Does she still think about it? A pause, then a nod — and, quietly: “I keep dreaming of what happened.”
Her mother, Majdolen, 31, fills in the gaps of Najia’s spare account. The family left their home in Beit Lahiya, close to the border with Israel, a few days after the bombing began to seek refuge in a nearby school. A few days later, fearing that was also unsafe, they moved to the school in Jabaliya, where about 3,300 people were crammed into classrooms and corridors, spilling out into the school yard.
Seven families were sleeping in classroom No. 1 when the missiles struck at about 4:30am. Najia’s legs were injured and her four-year-old brother Ali was hit in the head. Luckily, neither child’s physical injuries were severe.
Majdolen also received shrapnel wounds to her shoulder and head.
The Jabaliya school was one of six run by the UN that have come under attack over the past few weeks.
The family was taken to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a chaotic and overburdened place these past few weeks, whose exhausted staff are working round the clock and every bed is occupied. Ali spent two days there; Najia was kept in for a week being treated for extreme shock. She is still taking medication.
“She is very traumatized since it happened,” Majdolen said. “She can’t sleep properly, she’s always terrified. The children don’t want to leave me, they want to sleep with me and they follow me wherever I go.”
Despite the August heat, Najia wraps herself tightly in a blanket at night, her mother said. The family is now sleeping in the fourth place since the war began, but the child is pressing for another move, feeling nowhere is safe.
Based on the wars — Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and 2009, Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 and the current Operation Protective Edge — concertinaed into her short life, Najia concludes this one is the worst.
On top of the family’s desperate search for safety and the shelling of the school, their home has been flattened.
“It’s gone — there’s nothing there,” Majdolen said.
Doctors and mental health specialists in Gaza can draw on a bitter store of experience of treating traumatized children. After Operation Cast Lead, a study by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program found that 75 percent of children over the age of six were suffering from one or more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with almost one in 10 meeting every criteria.
In the aftermath of that war, Hasan Zeyada, a psychologist with the program, said: “The majority of children suffer many psychological and social consequences. Insecurity and feelings of helplessness and powerlessness are overwhelming. We observed children becoming more anxious — sleep disturbances, nightmares, night terror, regressive behavior such as clinging to parents, bed wetting, becoming more restless and hyperactive, refusal to sleep alone, all the time wanting to be with their parents, overwhelmed by fears and worries. Some start to be more aggressive.”
A study conducted by UNICEF, the UN agency for children, following Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 found that 91 percent of children reported sleeping disturbances during the conflict; 94 percent said they slept with their parents; 85 percent reported appetite changes; 82 percent felt angry; 97 percent felt insecure; 38 percent felt guilty; 47 percent were biting their nails; 76 percent reported itching or feeling ill; and 82 percent were either continuously or usually in fear of imminent death.
This time it is likely to be worse, Zeyada said.
“Any child above six years old has now been exposed to three wars. We are talking about a traumatized generation. They will perceive the world as dangerous, and they will have a lot of frustration and anger. And a desire for revenge,” he said.
The current war, he said, is “more intensive, more brutal” than the past two.
The two main pillars of Palestinian society — family and religion — have been relentlessly targeted. Scores of families have suffered multiple deaths; thousands of homes and dozens of mosques have been destroyed.
Zeyada has observed insecurity among his own four children.
“My daughter covers her eyes and ears when the television shows pictures. If I go to fetch bread, my son calls me many times, shouting: ‘Where are you?’” he said.
His family has not escaped the waves of death that have swept over Gaza. Three weeks ago, his mother, three brothers, a sister-in-law and a nephew were killed in an air strike in central Gaza.
“There was no warning,” he said.
Now, in addition to his own children, he is caring for several grief-stricken nephews and nieces.
“No one can guarantee this won’t happen again,” he said. “If we could guarantee security and safety for children, it would help them to overcome their trauma. But if we cannot protect them from another cycle of violence, it is very difficult... Israel is all the time in the process of creating a new generation of enemies.”
Back in Beit Lahiya, Najia — still in pink pajamas in the middle of the day — sees for the first time the photograph taken of her on the morning of the school shelling. Confusion and anxiety flood her tense little face. Recovery, if it ever comes, is a long way off.
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