War between Israel and Hamas: Gaza’s main highway is a ‘battlefield’, Israeli army warns

She was selected to join a group in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, made up of the first medical professionals to care for a group of children and their mothers returning to Israel. During the ceasefire, which lasted from November 24 to December 1, 19 children and 6 women kidnapped in Israel by Hamas and other militant groups on October 7 were hospitalized.

To the initial surprise of many, the children soon spoke freely about their experiences. Social workers and psychologists listened intently as the children told stories in voices barely above a whisper.

One child said he kept time by tearing off pieces of his fingernails and saving the clippings to count the days. Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev, director of the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Israel, said another child asked a series of questions: “Can we look out the window? Can we open the door? Can we walk out of the room?’ Another child said she was confused when she saw people waiting for her because she was told that no one was looking for her, that no one cared about her and that there would be no more Israel for her.

Sometimes a social worker or psychologist would leave the room to cry.

“They talked about death as if they were going to the supermarket and talked about which ice cream they were going to buy,” said Dr. Mozer-Glassberg.

In Gaza too, the war has hit women and children particularly hard. They make up a large portion of the 15,000 people reportedly killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7, according to UN and health officials in Gaza.

Dr. Bron-Harlev had long planned how her hospital would welcome the hostage children. Just over a week after October 7, she emailed the Ministry of Health: “Let’s think about optimistic days when the children will return from captivity.”

She started building a team that resembled a whole new department. She didn’t know if any hostages had suffered sexual trauma, she said, so she created a team made up mostly of women. She didn’t know if anyone would return with acute physical trauma, so she put a team on call, consisting of the head of intensive care, the head of anaesthesiology, the head of the surgical team and the head of orthopedics.

Dr. Bron-Harlev then built a small inner circle consisting of senior doctors and nurses, social workers and psychologists, hospital support staff and kitchen staff. Food could be a big problem, she thought. What could they tolerate, and what would they want?

When the children arrived, some with their mothers, they were greeted slowly. They first reunited with their families and got time together. The medical teams approached each child and mother carefully.

“We took it slowly, one step in, two steps out, to see what their needs were,” said Efrat Harel, the medical center’s director of social services. Each patient was assigned a doctor, a nurse, a social worker and a psychologist.

They found patients who had lost 10 to 15 percent of their body weight, who had a head full of lice and a torso full of bites, and who had hygiene unlike anything the hospital had ever seen. Many bathed only once during their captivity, just before they were to be released, with a bucket of cold water and a cloth.

One patient felt particularly comfortable with Dr. Mozer-Glassberg, so she spent four days slowly brushing the girl’s hair with a lice comb and quietly crying. Dr. Mozer-Glassberg recalled asking if she should shave her head because the plague was so severe. “Eventually they will go away,” Dr. assured. Mozer-Glassberg hair from lice. “They will go.”

She initially worried that the children would develop refeeding syndrome, a dangerous condition in which someone who is malnourished returns to eating normally before the body can digest larger portions.

However, many children took a few small bites at dinner and then put the food aside. When asked why, Dr. Mozer-Glassberg that they had replied: “So the food will last the rest of the day.”

Despite the reassurance that more food was available, many children struggled to eat.

Then, at 1am on his second night in hospital, a child asked for schnitzel and mashed potatoes – a joyful development – ​​and the kitchen staff enthusiastically prepared the food and found a nice plate, cutlery and glass to serve.

Children began talking in voices louder than a whisper and playing with family members outside their rooms.

But questions and concerns still haunt their parents and caregivers.

One mother described how she and her child were taken to Gaza on the back of a tractor, along with a soldier who was seriously injured. Her daughter was covered in blood when they reached Gaza, and the child asked the mother, “What happened to the man who poured red?” said dr. Bron-Harlev, while translating.

The child still asks about the man. The mother doesn’t know what became of him.

On Monday, after sirens went off in Petah Tikva, sending the girl and her mother to a safe room in the hospital, the girl asked her mother if they were going back to the tunnels. When she assured her daughter that this was not the case, the girl asked if they were moving, like in Gaza.

The hospital’s work is heartbreaking and its employees have relied on each other for support, said Dani Lotan, director of psychological services at Schneider Children’s. Many spoke of having to slow down, only to realize that they could not rehabilitate the children and mothers in a day or two or “compensate them for everything they had lost,” Mr. Lotan said.

Like much of Israel, Dr. Mozer-Glassberg that she can treat two more children, Kfir Bibas, who was 9 months old when he was kidnapped along with his 4-year-old brother Ariel Bibas. Hamas claimed that both children and their mother, Shiri, were killed by Israeli airstrikes, but Israeli officials have not confirmed the report. The Bibas family has said they hope claims “will be refuted by military officials.”

While Dr. Mozer-Glassberg spoke, a blaring siren began to ring outside and her phone announced in Hebrew “tzevah adom” – red alert.

“Oh well,” she said, as she grabbed her things and walked with the rest of the staff to a nearby stairwell, Israel’s Iron Dome defense system being heard as it intercepted missiles.

Her work and the war were far from over.