Where laughter returns: In Gaza, animal-assisted therapy offers children a rare space to heal amid Israel’s genocide

In central Gaza's Al-Sawarha camp, the sound of a small whistle cuts through the afternoon heat.

Within seconds, dozens of children come running across the dusty ground, gathering around a row of small wooden cages.

A white rabbit hops onto the sand, followed by a bright green parrot that sits on a shoulder. Then Lucy, a small dog, runs through the crowd, her tail wagging as children laugh and reach out to touch her.

One boy proudly holds a tortoise for the first time, while a little girl who has spent several minutes watching from a distance slowly steps forward after seeing the other children smile.

At the centre of these activities is 41-year-old Rashid Anbar, an animal-assisted therapist and activities coordinator with the Sameer Project, a psychosocial initiative supporting displaced children.

As the children gather around the animals, Rashid moves between them, showing them how to hold and feed them safely.

In each interaction, he uses the animals to teach the children and encourage them to take part.

The session is also a chance for the children to learn. Rashid asks them simple questions about the animals in front of them.

"Who knows what rabbits eat?" he asks the children. 

Several hands shoot into the air before he asks another question: "And how does a tortoise move?"

The children eagerly answer before Rashid points to the nearby parrot and asks, "Who knows the English name of this bird?"

A healing space amid Gaza's destruction

As children's laughter, dogs' barks and birdsong replace the sounds of Israeli drones and distant explosions, Rashid tells The New Arab that the sessions offer children living through nearly three years of Israel's genocide in Gaza a rare moment of relief, while helping them rebuild the sense of safety and trust they have lost.

"A child who lives through war doesn't just lose their home," he tells The New Arab. "They lose trust in everything around them. They become afraid of sounds, places and even people."

Rashid continues, "When they begin touching a small animal and realise it won't hurt them, we take the first step towards rebuilding that trust. I don't ask children to forget the war. That's impossible. I simply want to give them one hour when they can feel like children again, not displaced people, not victims and not witnesses to destruction."

Rashid points to the wider impact of the war on children across Gaza. Figures from Gaza's health authorities say more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its genocidal campaign after 7 October 2023, while more than 174,000 people have been injured.

He highlights that children have been among those most affected.

Thousands have lost parents or siblings, suffered permanent disabilities or been displaced multiple times.

Humanitarian organisations say almost every child in Gaza has been exposed to traumatic events during the war.

The long-term impact of this trauma remains a concern.

Mental health specialists warn that the effects of these experiences will continue long after the onslaught ends.

A lifelong bond

Looking back to the years before the Gaza war, Rashid's work with animals began in 2017, when he founded My Animal Friend, an initiative that promotes respect for animals while introducing children to animal-assisted learning.

Although he graduated with a degree in political science from Al-Azhar University, his career later moved in a different direction.

He spent 10 years working at the Qattan Centre for the Child, headed the taxidermy department at the Islamic University of Gaza's Faculty of Biology and became one of the enclave's leading specialists in reptiles and animal care.

Through this work, Rashid developed a programme called Enhancing Therapy and Learning Through Animals, using supervised interaction with animals to support children with autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities.

When the war reached his home, the work he had spent years building was disrupted. 

Israeli bombardment destroyed his house, killing many of the animals he had spent years caring for, while others were left behind as he was forced to flee from one displacement site to another.

"I considered the animals part of my family," he says. "Some had lived with me for years. Leaving them behind during the bombing was one of the hardest moments of my life. Afterwards, I fell into depression and couldn't imagine working with animals again."

Months later, Rahid found his way back to animal-assisted therapy while working with the Sameer Project.

At first, he organised drawing sessions for children, but he soon noticed that when animals were introduced, children who had withdrawn from others began to show curiosity, approaching the animals, smiling and speaking more.

"I realised the animals weren't only helping the children," he says. "They were helping me recover too."

More than play

With support from the Sameer Project, Rashid's earlier work developed into one of Gaza's few structured animal-assisted therapy programmes for displaced children.

The sessions now include rabbits, parrots, ducks, turtles, cats, trained dogs and even harmless reptiles.

Rather than simply allowing children to play with the animals, the programme follows a set structure.

Children begin with movement games before gradually interacting with the animals. They learn their names, colours, sounds and feeding habits before taking part in drawing, storytelling, role-play and group activities that are designed to improve communication, emotional expression and concentration.

"The child thinks they're just playing," Rashid explains. "But in reality, they're rebuilding their confidence, learning how to communicate and overcoming their fears."

Even the programme's non-venomous snake has a purpose. Rashid says it helps children understand that fear can become smaller when they learn more about what frightens them.

'I feel like they understand me'

Among the children taking part in the sessions is Abdullah, whose relationship with Lucy the dog has changed how he sees himself and how other children see him.

Months earlier, Abdullah suffered severe injuries during the war that left him with a permanent physical disability and dependent on a wheelchair.

After his injury, Rashid says Abdullah became withdrawn.

"He rarely spoke to other children and preferred sitting alone," he says.

That began to change after Abdullah met Lucy. At first, he watched the dog from a distance. Gradually, he began feeding her and spending more time with her. Weeks later, he was calling her by name and teaching her simple commands.

As other children noticed the bond between them, they began approaching Abdullah to ask how Lucy listened to him and how he had trained her.

"The dog became a bridge," Rashid says. "It created conversations that otherwise wouldn't have happened."

Rashid continues, "The children weren't approaching Abdullah because of his disability anymore. They were approaching him because they wanted to learn from him."

As he gently strokes Lucy's head, Abdullah says the animals have changed the way he feels.

"I used to be afraid of animals," he tells The New Arab. "Now I love them. I feel like they understand me."

Finding confidence after trauma

The changes Rashid sees in the children are seen across the whole group.

Nearby, Aya sits carefully holding a green parrot, an animal she would not have approached before joining the sessions, as the sound of birds flapping their wings once frightened her almost as much as the constant noise of aircraft overhead.

Today, she is one of the first children to volunteer, which Rashid says shows she is beginning to regain confidence.

Rashid adds that Aya's progress, along with Abdullah's experience with Lucy, reflects the emotional struggles many children attending the programme face after living through war.

He says almost every child carries the effects of what they have experienced, including loss, fear and repeated displacement.

"Some have lost parents. Others have witnessed bombings or survived repeated displacement. Their emotional needs are every bit as important as food, shelter and medicine," he says.

The psychological cost of war

Gaza-based psychologist Manal Abed says the work carried out by the Sameer Project goes beyond giving children a chance to play, addressing one of the war's least visible effects: the impact on their mental health.

"The latest figures indicate that around 438,000 children have experienced serious violations during the war," she says.

Manal also adds that many children in Gaza are experiencing high levels of distress, including anxiety, depression, nightmares, bedwetting, aggression and social withdrawal.

As Manal puts it: "Children need play to recover. In Gaza, that right has almost disappeared. Any safe space where children can laugh, interact with others and express themselves becomes an essential part of psychological recovery."

A lasting sanctuary

Looking ahead, Rashid hopes to continue expanding the programme, using interaction with animals to help reduce stress, restore a sense of safety and support children, particularly those living with disabilities or severe trauma, as they rebuild social relationships.

For Rashid, each small change he sees among the children reinforces his continued work despite the losses he has experienced himself.

His ambition is to establish Gaza's first permanent animal-assisted therapy centre once conditions allow. The programme currently reaches around 150 children directly, but he believes the need is much greater.

"My message isn't simply about teaching children to love animals," he says. "It's about helping them trust themselves again. When I see a child who spent weeks crying suddenly laugh because they're feeding a rabbit or holding a parrot, I feel that everything I've endured wasn't in vain," he adds.

Despite the challenges ahead, Rashid says he wants to continue creating moments of relief for children living through war.

"I can't stop the war," he says. "But if a child leaves here smiling instead of crying, then we've already won something."

Sally Ibrahim is The New Arab's correspondent from Gaza