In a report released on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the start of the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip, Save the Children, an NGO, warned that 80% of children in the Palestinian sector suffer from psychological disorders.

The UK-based organization said in a report titled “Trapped” that the mental health of Gaza’s children is deteriorating.

Israel has imposed a tight land, sea and air blockade on Gaza since Hamas took control of the impoverished enclave in 2007, half of whose residents are unemployed, mostly young people.

Since 2018, the number of children in Gaza who complain of symptoms of “depression, sadness and fear” has increased from 55 percent to 80 percent, according to the report.

“Children we spoke to during the preparation of this report described their feelings as a constant state of fear, anxiety and sadness,” said Jason Lee, director of the organization in the Palestinian territories.

According to the director of the organization, they also suffer from “an inability to sleep and focus and wait for a new round of violence to break out.”

In a press release, he cited “physical evidence of their plight, such as involuntary urination, loss of the ability to speak, or the performance of basic tasks.”

The evidence is “shocking and should serve as a wake-up call to the international community,” Lee told me.

The organization said that children made up nearly half of the Strip’s population and that the 800,000 young people in the Strip “did not live without siege”.