The Palestinians have survived the seven months of the current Intifada because of their traditional family and clan structured society. Israel's policy of cutting the Gaza Strip into isolated sectors makes it difficult for doctors to give sustained treatment to patients because they cannot get to clinics and surgeries. The most traumatised are the children. They have lost their world of security. They find themselves in a cage with no roof and receive trauma from the sky and from the eyes of their parents.
Every family has a member afflicted with bed-wetting.
Furthermore, he said, malnutrition is on the increase. Now there are many more. Geraldine Shawa, president of the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children, revealed that many of the children who attend the society's school are hungry and must be given food, putting a strain on the Society's resources. To make matters worse, the childrens' cash-strapped families cannot afford the fees for the school bus and the 10 to 15 dollars a month cost of batteries for hearing aids. Deaf children are often more traumatised than hearing children because the deaf do not understand what is happening.