Palestinians take to Gaza's waters to escape a heatwave and suffocating Israeli siege

Palestinians in Gaza have taken to the waves to deal with the stress caused by countless Israeli assaults and the ongoing siege on the coastal enclave. 

Taking advantage of the summer season, groups of children and young people, of all genders and ages, have taken part in swimming lessons off Gaza's coast amid a severe lack of mental health care and facilities in the strip.

"Once I finish my classes in the university, I decided to come to the sea three days a week to practice swimming and to recharge my internal positive energy," Sally Al-Ahmed, a Gaza-based university student, told The New Arab.

"In fact, we were subjected to one of the most dangerous Israeli assaults a month ago… we survived, but our souls still suffer from the consequences of the Israeli aggression."

Gazans say the repeated attacks have led to constant fears about when the next Israeli assault will begin. The enclave has been subject to a series of devastating military attacks since Hamas's takeover of Gaza in 2o06, leading to thousands of civilians killed and homes destroyed in repeated Israeli airstrikes. 

"Sometimes, we react harshly to some situations that do not warrant that, and at other times we may feel that our feelings are frozen and we do not know what to do," said the student.

Gaza lacks the proper psychological care needed to help Gazans deal with the consequences of Israel's actions, which include homelessness, extreme poverty, overcrowding, and injuries that authorities lack the resources to deal with effectively.

"My friends and I resorted to sports as a means to achieve this, and recently we got acquainted with [swimming]," Al-Ahmed said.

For the same reason, Mahdy al-Jammal, a Gaza-based man in his 30s, encourages his four children to enjoy the Gaza waters amid the stresses on land.

"My four kids suffer from psychological problems, mainly after the latest Israeli aggression. They have become more nervous than before, and also tend to be introverted," Al-Jamal said.

"Swimming, either in the sea or in private pools, can help them to interact with others, mainly strangers."

On 9 May, Israel launched a five-day bloody military assault on the Gaza Strip killing three senior leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement (PIJ) but also leaving 33 Palestinian civilians dead.

Egypt succeeded in reaching a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas-led militant groups to avoid further human and material losses on both sides.

But more than half of the young population of Gaza could be in need of psychological support after the five-days of tensions and previous Israeli attacks, Sami Owaida, a local psychiatrist and the head of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP), said. He said swimming and other physical activities could help, to some degree, with this.

"The repeated Israeli attacks led to a clear imbalance in human behaviour, whether in adults or children. As a result of this continuous bombardment, what is called psychological trauma emerges which has different responses at behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physical levels," Owaida told The New Arab.

"Practicing sports, including in the water, would help locals get rid of their negative energy and we encourage them to do that."