The time was almost 11 am when three bullets penetrated through the window of the fifth grade classroom, fired by the Israeli soldiers at the Khan Younis Elementary School.

Children are used to hide under their benches when they hear the shelling, as their teacher instructs them to remain under their seats to avoid being hurt by the random bullets fired. Everything was going on like any other school day, but suddenly, one of the students screamed, "Miss: Ghadir was shot!"

The bullet had ripped through Ghadir's body. She was immediately rushed to the hospital, and remained struggling with death until she died the next day.

Sadness and mourning prevailed in the school when they heard the terrible news, and the school became an unsafe place for students, who are studying at a threatening atmosphere, expecting shelling or shooting at any point in time.

Ghadir's classmates lived through severe instability, many remained re-experiencing the murder of their innocent friend, and everyone could not help but listen to the sounds of shelling outside the classroom.

Ghadir's bench remained vacant until the next day, as children had placed Ghadir's photo on it. At the debriefing session, everyone started expressing their feelings towards what happened to their classmate.

Dalia, Ghadir's best friend, says, "The first bullet came from the window. The teacher gave us a signal to hide under the benches, and so did Ghadir. Minutes later, the soldiers fired two more bullets, and suddenly I looked at Ghadir, and saw a blood spot on her chest while she was laying on the ground. I yelled as loud as I can asking the teacher for help. The teacher held her and rushed to the hospital, and ever since I felt very frightened. When I returned home, I told my mother what had happened. I was very afraid that a bullet would hit me and what happened to Ghadir would happen to me. She was my best friend. I usually daydream walking with her around the school and sitting next to me. I had a dream about her last night, in which the soldiers shot at us, and the bullet hit me and not my friend. I woke up terrified and shaking. At that point, my mother sat beside me and calmed me down."

Dalia continues, "When I wanted to go the next day to school, I was hesitant and scared of going into the classroom because all the time I imagined that a bullet would be penetrating through the window and killing me."

This was not only Dalia's feelings, but it was the feelings of many children who witnessed the incident, and expressed at the debriefing session their fears and resistance to going to school, constantly worrying that the same incident will happen to them as well. Also, they picture most of the time what had happened as it is

re-occurring over and over again. Their dreams are still focused on death and that bullets hunt them down and kill them. They spoke about how sad they felt for what happened to their classmate, and the guilt feelings they felt because they could not do anything to prevent the killing of their beloved friend, Ghadir.

What happened to Ghadir must have instilled fear, mistrust, and anger into those children, especially because every place has become an unsafe for them – even school. Children cannot continue to communicate with their teachers in these difficult circumstances amidst constant gunfire and shelling.

Palestinian educational and academic institutions have become constant targets for the Israeli forces; such targeting is escalating day by day.

Through my work with children, I believe that their behaviors are normal attempts to cope and heal. They are highly resilient, and able to help themselves adapt with minimal psychological support. I have worked to counsel teachers on the significance of being prepared to help the children challenge the current conditions and encourage them to speak about their painful experiences that they went through, using drawing and playing. Also, helping and reassuring children through maintaining some form of daily routine with a positive aspect. After several sessions debriefing, individual counseling, psychological support, and provision of instructions, a noticeable improvement occurred in most of the cases among the children, and some sort of psychological coping has happened. Some of the cases are now being followed by the school counselor, and are discussed with me whenever I visit the school.