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Raghad al-Fara is struggling to rebuild her teenage life in Athens, not least because she now moves around with crutches because of injuries suffered in the Gaza war.Evacuated from the besieged Palestinian territory in February she now lives in a shelter for refugee women. “I never thought I would survive, let alone set foot on European soil,” the 15-year-old told AFP. Raghad is one of 10 Gazan minors suffering from “complex” orthopaedic and psychological injuries, according to Heracles Moskoff, secretary general for vulnerable persons at the migration ministry. Injured during an Israeli bombing, she was evacuated with her mother Shadia and her younger sister Argwan. The rest of the family — three other children and the father — remain in Gaza.In total, 26 Palestinians arrived in Athens at the end of February, according to the Greek foreign ministry.”When we learned that Greece agreed to host us, it was a relief,” said Shadia al-Fara, the teenager’s mother. – ‘Not just a survivor’ -Sara Al-Sweirki, 20, who now also lives in Athens, is determined to “not just be a survivor.” “I want to be a girl my age like others, learn guitar and piano, and study,” stressed the young woman, who left Gaza in September with her mother and brother.Accepted by the private Deree American College of Greece, al-Sweirki will begin her studies in January. She chose psychology “to help others overcome their traumas,” she said. Raghad could use such expertise. Her mother noted that the teenager still has not received psychological support “even though she wet the bed for months” due to the severe shock she experienced. Raghad was injured in a July 2024 Israeli bombing in the Gaza city of Khan Younis that caused hundreds of casualties. Her right leg and back were crushed under the rubble of a building.”For two months, my daughter was on a respirator and for seven months, bedridden, unable to move,” al-Fara recalled painfully. Upon her arrival in Greece, Raghad was treated by an orthopedist and a physiotherapist at a children’s hospital.But she had to wait months for a support belt, and her mother, a former hairdresser, had to find orthopedic shoes on her own.”Greece took responsibility for us but then abandoned us,” Raghad’s mother said, stating that the Greek state provides no financial assistance.Even though the Palestinian community in Athens has asked the government to host more injured Gazans, there is “no political will” by the conservative Greek government, said Palestinian official Latif Darwesh. “The current government has forgotten its historic friendship with the Palestinian people,” Darwesh said.Many Palestinian students found refuge in Greece in the 1980s, under the socialist administration of Andreas Papandreou, who cultivated close relations with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.- Popular solidarity -Israel’s tactics used against Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 set off the war, has heightened solidarity towards Palestinians among the Greek population. The government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has yet to recognise a Palestinian state, even though 74 percent of Greeks would support such a move, according to a recent study by aboutpeople, a Greek social research group.Sara al-Sweirki does not know if she will stay in Athens “forever,” though she acknowledges that “the future in Gaza remains very uncertain.” A truce agreement that came into effect on October 10 “does not mean reconstruction,” said Shadia Al-Fara, who has enrolled her daughters in Greek school. “We cannot return to live under tents with the fear of bombings resuming!” said the mother. “My three other children in Gaza ask me to get them out of this hell” but Al-Fara says she feels “powerless” to help them.Sara Al-Sweirki, meanwhile, looks to the future. “My dream was interrupted” after October 7. “But now I am more determined than ever to pursue my goal (of studying),” she said.

Children scarred by the war in Gaza are undergoing a therapy programme using virtual reality headsets that transport the youngsters to a world far away from the destruction around them.The VR therapy is aimed at improving the children’s psychological wellbeing, with operators saying it can achieve results more quickly than traditional therapy sessions.Inside a white tent pitched on a sandy patch of ground in Al-Zawayda, in central Gaza, excited chatter swelled as five boys roamed around a virtual world.The youngsters, one in a wheelchair and the others on plastic seats, turned their heads, exploring the new surroundings inside their goggles: a land of green gardens, tranquil beaches and safe cities.One boy reached out and clapped his hands together, as if swatting a fly. Another, smiling, with his hand held up in front of his face, reached out to touch the scenery.One said a dog was running towards him, and beckoned to it, calling out: “Come! Come!””I see birds,” the boy in the wheelchair told an operator, looking around.One of the operators delicately put the blue TechMed Gaza headset on 15-year-old Salah Abu Rukab, who sustained a head injury during the war, asking if he could see the VR properly as he adjusted the buckles.”We feel comfortable in it, we enjoy it, and through it we enter a garden, we enter spaces with animals and similar experiences,” the teenager told AFP.Asked by the operator what he saw, he replied: “It’s all trees. Nothing but trees, grass and flowers.”- ‘Positive results’ -Mental health supervisor Abdalla Abu Shamale explained there was more to the VR headsets than simply escape.”Through programmers, we are able to design games with therapeutic, preventive and developmental goals that help prepare the child or enable them to cope and manage their life more effectively,” he told AFP.”This method has proven its effectiveness over a full year of working with many children, including war-amputee children, injured children and those exposed to extremely traumatic events.”A fragile ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas has held since October 10.The World Health Organization says conflict-related injuries carry a mental health toll, and survivors struggle with trauma, loss and daily survival, while psychosocial services remain scarce in Gaza.Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told AFP that around one million children, or in other words, “all children in the Gaza Strip, are in need of mental health and psychosocial support after two years of horrendous war”.The VR sessions rely on programmes specifically designed for traumatised children, taking into account their physical and psychological condition, and help them rebuild positive perceptions of the world.Abu Shamale said the children were “treated and accompanied through VR sessions, and when we integrated them into these techniques, they showed a very, very strong response and extremely positive results. “The speed of treatment, recovery and reaching stability using VR techniques was faster than in regular sessions. In regular sessions without VR, we usually need about 10 to 12 sessions, while with VR we can achieve results in just five to seven sessions,” he said.

A Kurdish militant picks his way along a switchback road in Iraq’s mountains before pulling over to alert his comrades in a nearby hidden bunker that they are about to have company.After calling from a phone dangling from a tree, he leads a team of AFP journalists into a bunker under the Qandil mountains, where they have been granted rare access to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rear base in northern Iraq.”A peace process doesn’t mean leaving the mountains,” says Serda Mazlum Gabar, a 47-year-old commander with her long, rust-coloured hair and unfailing smile.”Even if we leave, we will live the same way,” she added. “Nature doesn’t scare me, but I wouldn’t feel safe walking around a city, with its cars, smoke and traffic.”Answering a call from the group’s imprisoned founder Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK has taken historic steps in recent months towards ending its decades-old fight against Turkey that has claimed around 50,000 lives.The group formally renounced its armed struggle. Thirty of its fighters even burned their weapons in a symbolic move, although many fighters based in Qandil carried rifles during AFP’s visit.For decades, the PKK has found sanctuary in mountains in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.Even if fighting has stopped, the guerrilla lifestyle won’t end. It will rather adapt to new “peaceful” ways, the commander said.”We were not forced into this life. We chose it,” she added.- ‘Not one place’ -At the entrance, a large fan is attached to a duct that runs into a concealed passage, ventilating fresh air to the hidden bunker.The tunnel then opens into a broader corridor where PKK members and commanders dressed in their traditional military dress –- olive green fatigues or a dusty-coloured sirwal and vest –- line up to greet visitors.The corridor branches out to several rooms, each serving a purpose. One, its entrance decorated with fresh plants and strings of lights, is quarters designated for women fighters.Iraq’s mountains have recently welcomed new arrivals — fighters who withdrew from Turkey to show the group’s commitment to the peace process.Among them is Vejin Dersim who joined the PKK at only 23 and had spent most of her time in southeastern Turkey.Now 34, she has withdrawn to Iraq’s mountains. “Leaving was very emotional. It is a very special place there, especially because we were closer to leader Apo,” she said, referring to Ocalan, who has been held in solitary confinement on Turkey’s Imrali island since 1999.Her comrade Devrim Palu, 47, joined the movement in 1999 and has recently returned to Iraq. “In our movement, it doesn’t matter where you are fighting, and one doesn’t stay in one place,” he said in a soft, low voice.Today is the time for change, he said.He added that the PKK is capable of changing the nature of the conflict and transition from war to peaceful engagement.- ‘Eyes closed’ -Over decades, the PKK — still formally designated a “terrorist group” by the United States and the European Union — has gone through several periods  of peace talks with Turkey.They have gone through several seismic shifts from starting as a separatist movement to gradually becoming advocates for Kurdish equality in Turkey.It now says it is entering a new phase by pursuing a democratic path to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority.According to Devrim Palu, it is generally easier to be based in Iraq because the top commanders are closer, and news arrives firsthand.In the bunker that AFP visited, the walls are adorned with pictures of Ocalan and fallen fighters. In a kitchen, PKK members knead dough to make lahmajun, which is bread topped with meat. Others watched TV, drank tea or chatted in the corridors.One is a designated room to maintain communications with others in the surrounding mountains.Qandil has been home to the PKK for years -– a place that offered greater refuge than the mountains of southeast Turkey.At first, fighters hid in caves, then began carving and digging dozens of their own well-maintained bunkers. Qandil became their headquarters.”I could drive these mountains with my eyes closed,” one member said, skillfully navigating the rugged tracks at high speed in the pitch-dark night.