Children living near Gaza strip showing psychological toll

(CBS News) ASHKELON, Israel - Iron Dome, Israel's projectile defense system, did not protect a school and a house today a coastal city in southern Israel.

For the people who live there, every day life includes having 45 seconds to make it to a safe area if they hear a siren. The sirens are activated by the Iron Dome defense system.

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Two schools in Ashkelon suffered direct hits today. No one was hurt because no children living within a 25-mile radius of Gaza go to class these days.

The Hamas rockets are unguided. Where they land is random. So, in the same way that American kids have fire drills, schools here have rocket drills.

"That's not how we want to live and certainly not how we want to raise children and families," said Carol Erdheim.

Erdheim is a child psychologist at a hotline center which counsels parents whose children have behavior problems brought on by the war. She said children's fears is why most parents are calling in.

"They see their children crying, going back to acting in more infantile ways. That's also scary for a parent if a child who doesn't bedwet anymore starts bedwetting again. Does it mean something is wrong with him?

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If that's what happening to children in Israel who have warning systems and places to hide, what about children in Gaza who have neither?

"I would love it if some day I could meet my equivalents from Gaza... to compare notes and to see what we can do to help build up an emotionally healthier generation," she saida.

The sirens went off at least four times today in Ashkelon. There were no casualties, at least of the visible kind.

The Israeli military is poised along the border ready for an invasion of Gaza, but the government seems willing to give peace a chance. They've approved sending envoys to Cairo, and they're waiting to see how peace talks play out.

[brtzgcbs]

The more Palestinian rockets, the more Palestinian human shield children die.

Stop the rockets, stop the killing.

[stevehc1]

Hey, folks come on now. It's true that the children of Israel - especially those in southern Israel - are being forced to have a pretty crappy life because of this perpetually ongoing conflict. It's ALSO true that the children of Gaza have it even worse - MUCH worse. NO child is born deserving these kinds of lives; none should ever have to grow up (or worse yet, die) under such conditions. Unfortunately, Hamas and Gazan parents seem to have a generalized hatred of Israel and Jews that vastly supercedes whatever love they have for their children, and their desire to cause physical harm to Israelis is so strong that they have no problem with indiscriminatelyb firing unguided armed rockets regardless of who they land on, evenj if they land on fellow Palestinians. In trying to defend itself from those rockets, Israel makes superhuman efforts to specifically target terrorists, rockets launch and muniutions sites in Gaza... but that makes little difference to the children of EITHER side. Israel didn't "steal" its land from Palestinians - Palestine was ordered split in two by the U.N., and during past wars initiated against Israel by neighboring Arab states - which Israel won - it had no choice but to annex a bit of land to better protect itself from future aggression. Israel is NOT going away, it is NOT going to be "pushed into the sea" or vanquished - it's a permanent nation, period, and its existence is NO excuse for destroying the lives of citizens and their chioldren ANYWHERE by ANYBODY.

[MickKegeon]

Harv asked
...What were the children who were killed guilty of?...

The ones in Israel were guilty of standing where Hamas sent a rocket. The ones in Gaza were guilty of standing near a Hamas rocket launcher.

[brtzgcbs]

slownews - guess again.

There was a Palestinian boy killed on Friday, initially blamed on Israel.

From the Washington Post:

"Now, it turns out that the Gazan boy may have been killed by an errant Hamas strike. A Gaza-based NGO, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, reportedly told the U.K. Telegraph that Sadallah's death may have been the result of a Hamas rocket that mistakenly landed within Gaza. Hamas' rockets are unguided and thus more susceptible to flying off of their intended course."

spinner- You missed it bacause it never happened.

[brtzgcbs]

Palestinian civilians are dying because they are being used as human shields. The more civilian human shields die, the more Hamas can cry to the world. Enough crocodile tears.

Where are the sirens and shelters for the Gazans? They had 3 years to build them. Instead Hamas built rockets. Hamas hates Jews more than they love their children.

Don't tell me that the rockets have to be set up in dense areas. There are plenty of clear areas, parks, farms, fields, etc. Setting up launchers in civilian areas is a war crime and a crime against humanity. It shows the sickness of the criminal Hamas leaders.

[omnibus66]

The Israeli kids are crying. The Palestinian kids are having funerals. Does anyone see a difference?

[observer11]

Hamas tries to kill Israeli kids. Hamas tries to kill palestinian kids. can YOU see a difference????

[credibility2]

...well maybe Hamas shouldn't start the aggressions firing indiscriminately missiles into Israeli territory without any regard for Israel children and adults also being traumatized...Hamas hasn't any regard for any life, including their own...

[FreePalestine2TBatteh]

Maybe Israel shouldn't starve the people of Gaza, and carry out military incursions that kill innocent children.
Interviews with the people of Gaza indicate support of the resistance. It's not lack of regard for life, it is the exact opposite. They are being treated like the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto and, like them, are mustering armed resistance. They have said they will fight for their land, and the people willingly martyr themselves for their rights.

[lillyhorton]

We could say that isreal learned from the terrorists.

[sneefa]

wonder what it is like for children in the gaza strip

[Arkansasnative]

I like the way you cry for the children of Israel, traumatized as they grow up on land that their grandfathers stole from the people of Gaza but can't spare a tear for the children of Gaza who are being killed every day by Israeli fire power. I get it, it's terrible to suffer trauma from the people you imprison and starve and bomb to smithereens. Israel's sitting on 200 A bombs, poor little waif and the evil Gazans are sitting on a slice of sand between a rock and a hard place. Your concern is misplaced as usual when the Holy State of Israel is involved. When did the West give its' soul to Zionism? When did it willfully choose blindness rather than upset this bloody house of cards we bought into existence when White people could still decide the fate of third world countries. The British Empire is dead. But the evil it and the West passed off as good sixty something years ago lives on. But like the USSR which fell on its' 75th birthday I wouldn't wager in favor of a country ruled by such fools as Israel and supported so blindly by the now quickly decaying Western Powers.

[observer11]

Lets see: (1) Israel moves out of gaza so they have have peace, so hamas try kill them. (2) Israel has 200A bombs(?) and cant kill a few terrorists. Hamas would kill 100000 with just one. (3)Most readers of this site believe in western values and reject your islamic supremist attitude.

[WhereisOT]

"to compare notes and to see what we can do to help build up an emotionally healthier generation"...

Kinda hard to do, when the tomorrows for the Children of the World ain't even given a second thought by many "leaders", so called adults of today...

[skeezix06]

I agree.

[NY_observer_82]

It sounds like the people commenting on this article have more concern for the innocent civilians in Gaza than Hamas does. Can any sane person explain why Hamas continues to insist on launching their ineffective Iranian missiles at Israel from their densely populated areas thereby putting their own civilians at risk when Israel inevitably responds to the shelling of its civilians. It's clear that Hamas doesn't care about the people living in Gaza, and that they are launching this suicidal assault against Israel at the behest of their Iranian backers as part of a wider regional strategy.

[FreePalestine2TBatteh]

Israel broke the cease fire first. Hamas attacks from densely populated areas because all of Gaza is a densely populated area. Do you expect the people of Gaza to just roll-over and accept the abuse?

[lami987]

To make that area peaceful (or more appropriately a little more peaceful) Israel must end blockade of Gaza. Just because U.S. supplies arms to Israel doesn't mean they can do whatever they want to its neighbors. U.S. must demand Israel be more neighborly with its neighbors. Right now Israel has no friendly neighbor at all. Its existence is completely supported by U.S. tax payers. In return we got false informations on Iraq's WMD and possibly Irans nuclear weapon program.

[NY_observer_82]

Israel has long-standing peace treaties with 2 of its neighbors: Egypt and Jordan. Israel has also been involved in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and has worked toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict. With regard to the other neighbors: Hamas and Hezbollah - you know, the internationally recognzied terrorist organizations - you are absolutely correct, Israel has not been playing nice. But can you blame them, I mean Hamas has been indiscriminately shooting rockets at Israel's civilian population for years. If your friendly neighbor had a fridge full of eggs he kept chuking at you tell me you wouldn't go in to his kitchen and break the sob's fridge, and if his kitchen table and chairs got damaged in the process, so be it.

[observer11]

So in your mind that makes it ok for Hamas to start firing missiles at innocent civilians one day?