Name: Trauma care innovation: Virtual diversion for Gaza survivors
Uploaded: 2025-12-13T15:59:50.885Z
Duration: 2 min 40 s
Description: The war in Gaza has taken almost everything from children. Their homes, safety, and a sense of normal life. But inside a small tent in the heart of the Strip, a different kind of escape is taking place.

The war in Gaza has taken almost everything from children. Their homes, safety, and a sense of normal life. But inside a small tent in the heart of the Strip, a different kind of escape is taking place.

Jerusalem

The U.S-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza is holding, after Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages.

Middle East Conflict

In central Gaza, volunteers have established a small tent where children affected by war can use virtual reality headsets to escape their traumatic surroundings. The initiative, inspired by the late Dr Musab Ali, aims to offer not therapy but a temporary reprieve from the pain and destruction of conflict.

While the virtual reality sessions cannot rebuild lives or replace what has been lost, they provide moments of comfort and normality for children who have experienced significant trauma. The program faces difficulties due to Israel's blockade, which restricts access to spare parts for the equipment, but continues to serve as an emotional bridge toward healing.

Trauma care innovation: Virtual diversion for Gaza survivors

In a war that has taken almost everything from Gaza's children, this small tent in the centre of the strip has become a place where they come to breathe, to escape their reality. Volunteers use virtual reality not as a treatment nor therapy, but as a quiet escape for children who have seen too much, too soon. Here in this improvised clinic, virtual reality is offering children more than just distraction. It's becoming a quiet bridge toward healing. The effort traces back to Dr Musab Ali, a father who once used virtual reality to comfort his injured son. Musab was later killed, but his idea is growing. We are the team who interact the technology with our medical services by using a virtual world or by using specific applications and techniques that aim to transport our children from this world, from the real world that is full of pain, destruction and pumping, to another world, a world full of safety, calm and normality. Salah Abu Rukba still carries the wound he suffered before the ceasefire, a reminder etched into his body. But he says that when the headset comes down, some of the weight loosens, if only for a few moments. After I was injured in the head, I try to forget the pain. When I put on the headset, I forget the injury. I feel comfort as I forget the destruction, the war, even the sound of the drones disappears. For a few minutes, Salah and many others are not children of war, but just children again, trying to live in bright worlds with hearts that have held too much fear. But even this sanctuary is hard to sustain. Spare parts for such equipment are barred from reaching Gaza by Israel's blockade. Virtual reality cannot rebuild the lives of children in Gaza. It cannot replace what they have lost. But it offers a moment of peace in a place that has forgotten how that feels. This experience is a chance for Gaza's children to forget the wounds of the war and to remember that healing is not only medical, but also emotional and deeply human. Tarek Abou Azzoum, Al Jazeera, from Al Zawada, Palestine.

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Trauma care innovation: Virtual diversion for Gaza survivors

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