A Druze child relates, “We used to play like other children our age. We were innocently happy. We did not commit any crime. We didn’t harm anyone. Why did they shell the children of Majdal Al Shams with such cruelty? Why kill the children of Majdal Al Shams? Is this the victory our enemies want?”
After a missile struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams on July 27, massacring 12 Druze children, the rest of the children of Majdal Shams are all in need of therapy. The youngsters are all in various stages of attempts to cope with the horrific event.
Rafiq, a manager of a school in Majdal Al Shams, stated in a recent webinar that his school did an evaluation after the missile attack and found that 55 children in his school suffer from severe PTSD, while 80 suffer from moderate PTSD: “We need to provide treatment in every school. We work with the psychological department of the Ministry of Education.”
However, others noted that more help than the ministry can provide is needed and for this reason peop;le are working privately to provide for the psychological needs of the villagers. Non-governmental agencies have stepped in, with one, Maman, stating that they hired four Arabic speaking therapists and one Hebrew speaking therapist to start working with the Druze of Majdal Shams.
A bereaved parent speaks:
Adham Safadi, age 50, lives with his family in Majdal Al Shams and has been working as a senior paramedic for Magen David Adom for the last 17 years. On the afternoon of July 27, 2024, on the way home from the station in the city, he met his 12-year-old daughter Venis, who was wearing soccer clothes and informed her father that she was going to play soccer with her friends in the local soccer field.
After a few hours, the bomb sirens sounded in the north. While Adham shared with his wife his worries about Venis, an alarm also sounded in the area of their home and after a few seconds, a loud explosion was heard. He and his wife decided to go to the soccer field, which at that time was covered with black smoke. The streets of Majdal Al Shams were full of anxious and terrified people.
As soon as he entered the soccer field, he realized that it was a terror attack and he started to look for Venis. Amidst the commotion of the people, he found her and her friend lying on the ground, motionless. He recognized them by the soccer clothes that they were wearing.
He stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and asked for her forgiveness in being unable to help her. He turned to the people around them and asked for a blanket to cover them. Adham did not forget for a moment that he was one of the senior level paramedics working for Magen David Adom. Even though he had just lost his daughter, he managed to go around the soccer field in search of the wounded and saved many lives in this way: “I want everyone to know about the activities of Magen David Adom. They did everything to help the family and have been there for us till this day.”
Children tell the story:
Asmar Shofi, another child from Magdal Shams, was in the soccer field with his friends and he told us from his hospital bed in Safed about his memory of the terror attack: “I was playing with my friends and suddenly I heard an alarm. We started to run towards the shelter but suddenly we heard a big explosion. Before we could reach the shelter, I felt hot all over my body, burnt and in pain. I cried from the pain. I saw my friends on the ground. I could not move. I cried out my friends names, but they did not answer. Since then, I don’t remember anything till I woke up in the hospital.” Asmar suffered a multi-system injury from shrapnel. The fact that he was not at the center of the explosion saved his life. His only request is to return to play soccer with his friends. He refuses to accept that some of them were killed. “They will return to play with me,” he insists.
Alma Safadi, another child from the village, arranged to meet three of her friends at the local soccer field. Her little brother Nishan caused her to be late in arriving. Only 300 meters separated her from her friends, who were killed. The fact that she was late saved her life. Alma related: “I played with my friends every week on the soccer field. I loved them like sisters.”
She related, “We were always together in class, on the playground, for homework and now what? Where are my girlfriends? Why did they leave me alone? Who will sit next to me in class and understand the jokes that are unique to us? What will I do with the stories they told me? How will I continue from here? We used to play like other children our age. We were innocently happy. We did not commit any crime. We didn’t harm anyone. Why shell the children of Majdal Shams with such cruelty? Why kill the children of Majdal Al Shams? Is this the victory our enemies want?”
Israeli Druze diplomat Mendi Safadi said: “This is the village where I was born and grew up. This is the soccer field where I played in my childhood years. These are the children with whose parents and families I studied. Today, with them, I hurt every moment. Majdal Shams today lost the peace that characterizes her and this broke our family.”
He added: “We united after the tragedy in Majdal Shams to respond to the needs of the children of the village and their families for the trauma that befell them."
Safadi concluded: ““The target audience that needs treatment is divided into more than one circle. There are the dead and their immediate families, there are the physically injured and their immediate families, there are all the other children who were on the field at the time of the impact and were not injured (those affected by direct trauma) and their parents, there are the people who came to the scene of the incident immediately after the explosion and were exposed to the harsh sights, and to all this, we will add the flexible circles because we are talking about a village with a unique community/family way of life, which has never experienced a disaster of this magnitude or even half of it.”
Rachel Avraham is the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and an Israel-based journalist. She is the author of “Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media.”