The Electronic Intifada 17 December 2024
Israel is harming Palestinians both physically and mentally. (APA Images)
After months of Israel banning psychiatrists, Dr. Ammar al-Attar was allowed into Gaza on 20 April where he helped launch an online therapy clinic primarily aimed at helping people experiencing trauma and shock during the ongoing genocide.
In-person follow-up sessions were also offered to those you signed up online.
“I was surprised by the warm reception at the crossing and the hope Gazans have. For a moment, I forgot that I’m among people who have been at war for a long time,” al-Attar said, referring to Gaza’s Rafah crossing and his three weeks working in the enclave.
He led a group of 11 Jordanian doctors who, as he described them, are highly experienced in various specialties and have a strong sense of loyalty to their Arab brothers and sisters in occupied Palestine.
Mental health professionals in Gaza have long argued for a better system to provide medicines to their patients.
Al-Attar said the needed medicines were collected and transferred through the Rafah crossing, assisted by pharmacies and doctors from Egypt. Then the medicines were originally distributed to two clinics in Rafah, one in Nuseirat (central Gaza) and two in Gaza’s north.
But Israel has subsequently destroyed the clinics in Rafah and one of the clinics in the north.
Al-Attar said he was overworked in Gaza as were the other mental health specialists struggling to provide help.
“I used to meet no less than 30 cases daily and work until 2 am,” al-Attar said.
He pointed out that “sleep disorders and sleep deprivation lead to most of the psychological problems that Gazans suffer from.”
Sleeping problems can result in people “imagining things that do not exist and hearing strange sounds,” al-Attar said, with “a lack of sleep leading to tremors in the limbs, physical fatigue, joint pains” and depression.
He and a group of Jordanian psychiatrists launched in early May an Instagram initiative named Psychological Recovery.
“When officials communicated with relief and international organizations planning to visit Gaza, there was a great need for surgeons, orthopedists, pediatricians and emergency doctors,” al-Attar said. “However, no one thought of the Palestinians’ psychological conditions, which are as important as the physical one.”
People considering seeking help from the clinic fill out a form electronically and communicate with their appointed Jordanian psychiatrist through voice or video. Therapy sessions are conducted online mostly, and any needed medication is prescribed and dispensed through a mental health clinic of the Palestinian health ministry.
Helping boy after suicide attempt
Ali, 10, lost his legs after an Israeli attack that hit his home leading to his spending two days buried under rubble. His treatment began at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
He met with al-Attar after being transferred to the European Gaza Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
“It was not easy to deal with him. He refused to eat or sleep and was disturbed by the reality around him that all children can move freely and play except for him,” al-Attar recalled, highlighting that the boy attempted suicide by wrapping an intravenous solution tube around his neck, and “this was the most shocking part in his case.”
Al-Attar and other members of the Jordanian psychiatric team met with Ali and his mother and discussed a plan to provide him the treatment he needed.
Ali started to show improvements in his mood and thinking after about 10 days of treatment and then requested the prosthetic limb doctor to start treatment and psychological rehabilitation sessions, al-Attar recalled.
The boy’s condition is now stable as he is eating and sleeping normally but still needs to remain in the hospital for additional treatment.
“I was overwhelmed with joy and happiness seeing Ali’s psychological state and physical condition improve,” al-Attar said.
Yelling for help under rubble
He also talked about another client, Husam, 23, who lost his family and the electronic appliance story he ran in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
The Israeli military had told Hussam and his family to evacuate from Jabaliya in October 2023 and then bombed their house before they could leave. Al-Attar said Husam remained buried under the rubble for 24 hours before the Palestinian civil defense forces arrived.
The smoke and dust inside his mouth kept Husam from yelling to be heard at first.
When he heard that people above him were saying that everyone in the house had been martyred, he managed to scream loudly enough to alert the rescue workers that he was alive under the rubble. They dug him out, and he was sent to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City where he was diagnosed with a fractured pelvis and with bleeding in the pelvic artery.
“His psychological state was dangerous as he experienced loss, injury, siege and displacement, and the most critical one that affected Husam deeply was staying under rubble for a night,” al-Attar said.
When Israeli troops besieged al-Shifa hospital and cut off the oxygen from the intensive care unit, seven other patients were martyred in front of him while others were kidnapped, Husam told al-Attar.
He survived this ordeal and was transferred with the rest of the wounded and other patients to the European Gaza Hospital in the south. There, Husam told al-Attar that he developed strong friendships with the other patients and the medical staff.
“Psychological sessions improved his condition” as did learning his mother and younger brother were alive and trapped in the north, al-Attar said, adding that Husam’s sleep has started to improve and his stress decrease since he began therapy and taking medication,
The third case al-Attar discussed involved 12-year-old Fathi, who underwent several operations after being hurt while playing in front of a neighbor’s house when an Israeli bomb exploded.
Fathi had been waiting to travel abroad for medical treatment to prevent his leg from having to be amputated.
He and the five other members of his family were staying at al-Shifa hospital sharing only two beds. Fathi’s mother had sustained an eye injury, and his father was injured as well.
All were on a list to travel abroad for additional medical care.
After Israel invaded Rafah and closed the border crossing, time ran out on Fathi, and his leg was amputated.
“’The whole family was in a difficult psychological state and in need of support,” al-Attar said.
His work with the family helped Fathi and his parents accept that he would be without one leg until he could obtain a prosthetic one and then they all needed to work together to adapt to the situation.
Leaving Gaza
Al-Attar, who left Gaza with other members of the Jordanian medical team because of safety concerns, said he gained valuable experience in a very short time working with people in the territory.
“Gaza has taught and changed me a lot, and I always feel that I’m delinquent no matter how much I do for them,” al-Attar said.
“I left under the sounds of bombing around Rafah crossing. I left while others were being killed and injured and displaced. I wish I didn’t leave. I wish I was trapped there.”
“Unlike what’s shown in the media, Gazans love life and joy more than one can imagine,” he said.
“I was pleased by the weddings in the displacement camp at the European Hospital. I loved night gatherings where I used to gather with displaced Gazans to chat, eat dinner, drink tea and have anthem sessions.”
Al-Attar wrote the following poem spontaneously about working as a psychiatrist during the Israeli genocide. “I had never written poetry, yet I did the day I left Gaza,” he said.
This entity and its people have corrupted
And God has bought souls above them
They have destroyed the decorated homes of beloved ones
and bombed the mosques, schools and villages
They have left no one kneeling or prostrating
They have mixed the bodies with sand and blood
The hearts of children in Gaza have been burned
Motherhood has been mourned with a seen betrayal
Nisreen Alyan is a writer in Gaza.
