Gaza: Children’s hair greying, falling out from shock and trauma

Before Israel launched its war on Gaza, Amir loved to study and play football.

The 12-year-old from Khan Younis would spend a lot of time with his friends, dreaming of one day playing for Real Madrid.

Now he rarely smiles, and his hair has started greying, the wire-like strands standing out starkly against his otherwise jet-black hair.

"His hair started to turn white from the intensity of fear and the continuous bombing of the Gaza Strip," his older brother Mohammed, who did not share his full name due to safety concerns, told The New Arab.

"With every bombing, Amir starts screaming and crying and says ‘I don’t want my hair to turn fully white at a young age'" he added.

According to Mohammed, his younger brother spends a lot of time thinking about what could have been his future, mourning it.

"He was diligent in his studies, but even his school was destroyed…his only dream now is to survive the war and live in peace with his family, far away from the war where his hair can stop turning white," Mohammed explained.

Israel’s incessant bombing on the enclave has killed over 40,988 Palestinians and wounded at least 94,825 others since October. At least 10,000 others are believed to be still trapped under the rubble.

Palestinians in Gaza describe hearing the constant buzzing of drones above their heads, witnessing buildings blown up in bombings and being targeted with snipers. Torture among Palestinians detained in makeshift detention centres and in public areas is also rife.

The war, coupled with a disastrous humanitarian crisis has impacted the physical health, mental health and sleep in almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, who have little to no access to proper health care, food or clean water.

Tens of thousands of people in the enclave have been forcibly displaced, some up to 10 times, in shelters with no privacy or in makeshift tents.

"I have seen many people whose hair has turned white, whether children or young men in their twenties. I saw a girl two days ago whose hair started falling out. Literally, every minute her hair was falling out, she will be bald after a while," Mohammed said.

Amir, he says, "had dreams, loved school, was hardworking, and had completely black hair," but started feeling immensely anxious and distressed after two of his best friends were killed in Israeli bombardment.

Now, Mohammed says his and his brother’s primary concern is to flee Gaza and to stop Amir from feeling like "a 70-year-old man", leaving him to the final resort of launching an online fundraising campaign in the hopes they can leave through the Rafah crossing.

The sudden greying of the hair in children could be due to high levels of stress, which can lead to the production of free radicals that cause damage to stem cells that produce pigment.

Other factors could also contribute to the greying of hair, including nutrient deficiencies, or medical conditions.

Samah Jabr, the chair of the mental health unit of the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that children in Gaza are under constant trauma, with no time to heal from it due to Israeli attacks.

"In Gaza, there is no ‘post’ [traumatic] because the trauma is repetitive and ongoing and continuous," she said in June.

‘No longer children’

Palestinians in Gaza who spoke to The New Arab said that since the star of the war, they have noticed behaviour changes in children, particularly when it comes to expressing fear, shock or sadness, which some believe may trigger the early onset of greying hair.

Rather than screaming or crying, children will often stare in shock, one person told The New Arab, unable to voice or talk about their fears or experiences.

Kamal Abu Afash, a 12-year-old from Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza has lost more than 20 members of his family and survived two bombings.

In November, he was pulled out from under the rubble, after his mother and four siblings were killed and doctors were forced to amputate his father’s legs due to the attack.

"I could hear my mother and brothers groaning under the rubble and I couldn’t help them. I cried a lot under the rubble for long hours without even being able to move," he told The New Arab.

Hours after rescue teams saved him and pulled him out, he was still unable to speak for days, with images of his brothers and mother never leaving his mind, he says.

"As days passed, I noticed my hair had turned white, and every time I shaved it, the white hair would come back. We are no longer children, but old men who can’t even think about life because the Israeli army has imposed death on us," he said.

Hair loss in children

Others in Gaza also describe the sight of children with chunks of missing hair, becoming more frequent.

Sama Tubail, an eight-year-old from Beit Lahia in Gaza is one of many children who started to notice her hair falling out, until she was almost completely bald.

"I was sleeping when the army attacked the house...I was afraid so much and I did not know what to do. I cried without making any voice and my heart was racing so quickly," she told The New Arab, through tears as she recalled what happened.

Tubail was forced to leave her home and head towards Rafah seven months ago, but says her life was turned upside down when the Israeli army attacked a house near the tent where they were staying.

Eventually, her family were forced to seek refuge in the Indonesian Field Hospital.

However, as soon as they arrived there, the Israeli army attacked the hospital, leaving her afraid she would be killed on the spot.

"I was so happy when we weren’t killed," she said. "But I was shocked when I saw my hair falling out a lot later," she added.

For many children like Tubail, the hair loss has increased stress, as it has left them worried that their hair may not grow back.

"I get very sad when girls think I have cancer. I cry a lot, so I have stopped playing with girls outside" she said.

According to Doctors Without Borders mental health activity manager Davide Musardo, who worked at Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital and the Al-Nasser Hospital, more children in the enclave are experiencing depression.

Many are expressing a "desire to die instead of living in this horror," he said, attributing it to many young children losing their parents, siblings and any sense of normalcy.

"What we see are symptoms also of anxiety, stress reaction, acute stress…children are the most affected because they don’t have the capacity to explain what is happening to them or cope with all these tragic situations…" he added.