RAMALLAH, 7 April 2026 – Children in Gaza are holding funerals with dolls and turning war into a playtime game with fake shooting and pretending to throw missiles as violence becomes part of daily life after nearly two and a half years of war, Save the Children said.
Since October 2023, children in Gaza have been consistently exposed to extreme violence, displacement, starvation and disease, placing them at severe risk of long-lasting mental harm.
Now, 30 months into the war, Save the Children staff have reported children re-enacting some horrific scenes they have witnessed, including adapting hide-and-seek into a game they call "war" by shooting each other with their hands when found, then playing dead.
With a lack of toys or art materials, children are using the walls of destroyed homes and neighbourhoods as their paper to draw and colour.
Shurouq, 31, Save the Children's Gaza Multimedia Manager, lives in Deir al-Balah with her three-year-old daughter, who started re-enacting a funeral with her ‘dead’ doll. Shurouq said she spent months visiting nearly every children's shop in Gaza to find a large doll for her daughter. She eventually found one in her daughter’s favourite colour – purple – but paid nearly five times its original price due to overly broad restrictions by Israeli authorities on goods allowed to enter the Strip.
“Yesterday I was shocked to see my daughter and her cousin carrying that doll and saying, “martyr, martyr”. I thought I had managed to shield my child as much as possible from scenes of death, but it seems there is no escaping it.
“My daughter is not the only one. Every time I gather with my nieces and nephews, they play a game they call “war.” It is like hide-and-seek, but with an added twist: when someone is found, the others pretend to shoot them with their hands and say, “dead, dead.” One of them even said, ‘I will throw a missile at you’.”
Studies show that when children use play to recreate distressing scenarios they’ve witnessed or experienced, it can help them confront and process their experiences in a safe environment.
The prolonged trauma of constantly dodging bombs and bullets, losing loved ones, and being forced to flee through streets littered with debris and corpses has also left parents and caregivers increasingly unable to cope, with the support, services, and tools they need to care for their children further and further out of reach.
Children in conflict zones often experience bedwetting, nightmares, hypervigilance, grief, depression, anxiety, aggression, feeling withdrawn, and numerous other challenges. This can impair their ability to engage in daily life, including an inability to focus or perform well in school, learn new information, form relationships and attachments, or find a sense of safety, according to Save the Children’s mental health and psychosocial experts.
Shurouq said that every time she tried to protect her and her daughter's mental wellbeing, she found herself drowning, unable to escape a reality defined by destruction, loss, and severe economic hardship.
“Psychological survival is impossible while the situation in Gaza remains as it is. There are no real signs of reconstruction or rehabilitation, with ongoing bombardment, the expansion of occupied areas, control over crossings, and more,” she said.
Children who have experienced extremely distressing events or repeated stress are more likely to have long-lasting impacts for months or even years to come unless more mental health and psychosocial support is urgently provided alongside humanitarian aid.
Exposure to prolonged stress can have a devastating effect on children's mental health and wellbeing, and lead to what is commonly referred to as 'toxic stress'—the most dangerous form of stress a child can experience, according to Save the Children research.
Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children's Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe Regional Director, said:
“For about 2.5 years, children in Gaza have watched their friends and family members die before their eyes or be buried under the rubble of their collapsing homes. They have watched their schools and hospitals be targeted and destroyed; had access to life-saving food and medicine denied and been torn apart from the life they once knew.
“Given the developmental stage that children are in, they are extremely vulnerable in times of crisis. Play is a very powerful tool children use to help them process what they’ve witnessed or experienced firsthand and allows them to express feelings that might be too complex or painful to articulate in words. It is heartbreaking to see the weight of this war on children be played out.
“It is vital that children in Gaza receive access to the proper mental health and psychosocial support they desperately need - and that a lasting ceasefire holds, so they can finally begin to heal.”
All parties to the conflict must facilitate humanitarian access at all times. Israel, as the occupying power, has an additional obligation to ensure the humanitarian needs of the occupied population are met. Israel must lift the siege and ensure all border crossings are open and fully operational in both ways, aid restrictions reduced, and services resumed. Additional crossings need to be opened, including those providing direct access to the growing number of people in the north of the strip.
Save the Children specialists on the ground are supporting children in Gaza through mental health and psychosocial support services, and child friendly spaces where children can play, learn and connect with other children. Save the Children has reached nearly 15,000 children through its mental health and psychosocial support programmes in Gaza since October 2023.
Save the Children has worked in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1953, with a permanent presence since 1973. Since then, we have worked with partners to help provide quality education, protection for children, early childhood development support, and employment opportunities for young people.
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