‘Silent suffering’: Why children in Gaza are losing their ability to speak
Child psychotherapist Katrin Glatz Brubakk working with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) blowing bubbles with a Palestinian child
Mariem Bah and Ibrahim al-Khalili report in Al Jazeera on 24 April 2026:
After an intense bombardment struck near his home, five-year-old Jad Zohud suddenly lost his ability to speak.
He is not alone. Across Gaza, specialists are reporting a rising number of children who can no longer speak following war-related injuries or psychological trauma.
For some, the cause is physical – head injuries, neurological damage or blast trauma. For others, there is no visible wound. Their silence follows repeated exposure to violence that overwhelms their ability to process or communicate.
Child psychotherapist Katrin Glatz Brubakk, who has worked in Gaza twice with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, describes it as “silent suffering” often hidden beneath the scale of the destruction.
How is the problem manifesting?
At Gaza City’s Hamad Hospital, doctors say cases of speech loss among children are increasing.
Dr Musa al-Khorti, head of the hospital’s speech department, told Al Jazeera that in some cases, “a child could lose the ability to speak entirely,” referring to conditions such as selective mutism or hysterical aphonia, which is a functional loss of voice linked to extreme psychological distress.
The cases vary, but many follow a similar pattern: a sudden loss of speech after violence or injury.