"War through innocent eyes"

Steve Chambers of the New Jersey Star-Ledger reported Sunday on the effects of war on children in the Middle East. Reporting from Nahariya, Israel, Chambers examines the most stressful and potentially traumatizing aspects of combat, and draws from mental health experts to consider how parents can ease children's fears.

Children on both sides are at risk, Chambers writes:

THE WAR IS being fought on two fronts, so children are suffering not only in northern Israel, where Hezbollah rockets rain down, and in southern Lebanon, where the Israelis are striking suspected Hezbollah targets. Farther south, there are more young witnesses to war in Palestinian-controlled Gaza, where hostilities began last month after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and captured another.

In central Gaza, where Israelis and Palestinians fought pitched battles in the streets last week, parents said it was virtually impossible to reassure children who regularly witness death...