The Humanitarian Crisis: From Ongoing Warfare to Displacement

Gaza: Intergenerational Trauma & Coercive Environment

Childhood in Palestine is violated before a child even enters the world. The coercive environment imposed by the occupation severely undermines Palestinian children’s right to life and deprives them of the ability to grow up in safety and dignity.

Based on surveys and observations recorded by our field experts in 2025, 100% of children in Gaza are in urgent and immediate need of psychosocial intervention due to the effects of genocide, acute loss, and repeated forced displacement. This reality is not new; it reflects decades of systematic and structural violence targeting Palestinian children. Since the Nakba of 1947-1949, Palestinian life has been punctuated by cycles of war, forced displacement, and dispossession, methodically targeting four generations of Palestinian children.

Nearly 80% of homes have been destroyed, stripping children of the sense of protection that a stable home provides. This collapse has forced children to abandon childhood and assume heavy adult responsibilities for survival—such as collecting firewood, waiting exhausting hours for water, or acting as primary caregivers for younger siblings. This phenomenon, known as “forced growth,” compresses and disrupts normal psychological and cognitive development, creating a profound emotional and behavioral void that directly leads to the erosion of future aspirations.

Displaced Children in Cairo: War Trauma & Educational Void

The displacement of Palestinian families to Cairo involves deeply intertwined humanitarian and social dimensions, compounding their hardships beyond material needs.

Most displaced children arrive in Cairo suffering from acute severe psychological trauma as a result of witnessing bombardment and loss in Gaza, manifesting as panic attacks, constant fear, chronic nightmares, isolation, or mental dissociation. This is heavily compounded by an educational void: thousands of children risk losing years of schooling due to administrative hurdles related to residency permits and documentation required for public school enrollment, while many families cannot afford private school fees. This total disruption of routines leads to deep frustration, a loss of purpose, and delayed cognitive and social development.

Social Disruption & Strained Parenting Boundaries

Many families experience forced separation; mothers and children have fled to Cairo alone, while fathers or adult sons remain in Gaza or have been killed. This leaves mothers carrying the heavy burden of being the sole breadwinner and caregiver in an entirely new environment without a family support network. At the same time, parents themselves suffer from severe psychological and economic stress. This emotional exhaustion weakens their ability to provide the necessary comfort to their children, leading to strained relationships and heightened family tension due to constant anxiety.

The Post-Hospital Care Gap & Permanent Disabilities

Egyptian hospitals receive the wounded and critical cases for urgent surgeries, but a severe crisis begins upon discharge. Amputees and individuals with permanent physical disabilities experience complex psychological shocks requiring specialized, long-term rehabilitation. Once discharged, patients and their companions suddenly find themselves in acute need of housing, daily living expenses, and costly medications or rehabilitation supplies not covered by primary medical care. Medical companions (mostly mothers or wives) live under the weight of dual anxiety: fearing for the patient's life while being completely cut off from the rest of their families back in Gaza.

The Condition of "Unchilding" & Existential Necessity

This cumulative coercive environment produces the condition of “unchilding”—the premature and involuntary deprivation of childhood, replaced by enforced adult roles and vulnerability. This structural harm pass from one generation to the next, shaping families and collective identity.

The PHRC firmly asserts that urgent psychosocial support and treatment of these invisible wounds—both in the field and through our Cairo Hub workshops—are not secondary or recreational interventions. They constitute an existential necessity and essential psychological first aid, critical to mending the intergenerational cycle of trauma and protecting children’s right to life, safety, and development as fundamental forms of collective resistance against erasure.