Autism and war: Gaza families grapple with destruction and loss

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Among the rubble of Khan Younis, 16-year-old Ahmed Hatem al-Mahabeel clutches his hand tightly under his chin – a repetitive movement he uses to calm his nervous system and cope with the memory of the sound of explosions.

Ahmed, who lives with autism, has had to face the loss of some of his favourite places – his bedroom, his school, the sports academy he would attend, all destroyed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza .

Before the war, Ahmed was doing well. He was progressing through school under the supervision of a specialist. He was training at a football academy, as well as memorising the Quran and excelling in English.

But Israel’s war, ongoing since October 2023, has killed more than 73,380 Palestinians and destroyed vast swathes of the enclave. And behind those headlines is the disruption of the services and supportive environments needed by individuals like Ahmed who have autism spectrum disorder .

“Ahmed used to go to the mosque and the club on his own, making excellent progress, but the war destroyed everything we built,” said his mother, Umm Ahmed. “He suffers from extreme sensitivity to sudden noise; when explosions sound, he enters a severe panic attack, covering his ears and swaying. In cases of extreme terror, he resorts to self-harm, hitting his head against the ground to escape the sound.”

Beyond psychological trauma, severe malnutrition and protein deficiency caused his appendix to rupture.

“With food shortages, complications led to a wound infection, forcing doctors to perform a second surgical operation to open the abdomen and clean it until he recovered,” Umm Ahmed recalled.

Today, Ahmed spends his days confined indoors due to the lack of safety in Gaza, with Israeli attacks ongoing, despite an October ceasefire.