The guns may be made of plastic, but the scenes played out by these Palestinian children look real enough.

In war-torn Gaza and the West Bank, boys mimic the daily violence that takes place in their neighbourhoods. Using toy guns given to them during Eid al-Adha, a festival that commemorates the end of the haj, they re-create the conflict that has forged the lives of their fathers and their grandfathers.

Brandishing toy guns, they conduct mock raids of homes, where they pull one another out of the house blindfolded or handcuffed. They also play at “checkpoint”, forcing one another to line up and answer questions as though they were crossing one of the Israeli checkpoints.

Palestinian child protection groups say that children in the West Bank and Gaza are scarred emotionally by the violence. “My son sees other men in his family humiliated by Israeli soldiers. He mimics the behaviour with his friends. I do not think this is healthy,” said Suheir Bahour, 31, of Bethlehem.

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