Just days after Hamas kidnapped more than 35 young children and teenagers during its Oct 7 rampage, youth psychologists and welfare experts in Israel began worriedly preparing for their return, Reuters reports.

The bombardment in Gaza was in its early stages and the fate of the hostages was not clear, but Israel wanted to be sure that treatment protocols were in place when they came home.

It was, however, uncharted territory. Few times in recent history had so many children either directly witnessed such violence or been taken captive. Similar cases, such as the mass kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria by Boko Haram militants in 2014, had led to no written research on courses of treatment.

“We had some newspapers, items and clips and so on, but we couldn’t find any real materials about them,” said Asher Ben-Arieh, a specialist in child trauma at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University and Haruv Institute.

Ben-Arieh was tapped by Israel’s Welfare Ministry to help identify the possible emotional traumas endured and come up with written protocols to cope with them.

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