Shaher Yusuf Abdallah Yaghi
Shaher Yaghi (Shāhir Yāghī) (شاهر يوسف عبد الله ياغي), age 59, was a renowned psychologist in Gaza, lecturer in rehabilitation and psychology at the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza and al-Quds University, and coordinator for the School Quality Assurance Unit for UNRWA. He specialized in inclusive education for children with disabilities, and the treatment of psychological trauma in children. He devoted his life to the development of practices that could help educate and heal the children of Gaza who had suffered traumatic psychological and physical injuries.
Dr. Yaghi earned a BA degree in Social Rehabilitation from the University of Calgary (Canada) in 1994, an MA in Disability Studies from Flinders University in Australia, and an MA in Psychology from the Islamic University in Gaza in 2006. He completed his PhD in Psychology in 2019 at the Institute of Arab Research and Studies, Education Division, in Egypt.
Dr. Yaghi was a clinician as well as an educator. Over the years of his career in Gaza, he worked in the Gaza Community Mental Health Program as a psychologist/mental health specialist within the Trauma Project, and as Director of the Humanitarian Projects Department at the Palestinian National Authority’s Civil Service Bureau, assigned to work at the Fata Center for Humanitarian Communication. He also was the founder and had been head of Community Rehabilitation Services at al-Wafa Medical Rehabilitation and Specialized Surgery Hospital. In addition, he served as a trainer for many local and international institutions in the fields of psychological support, inclusive education, and rehabilitation. At the time of his death, he was working with the Center for Mind-Body Healing (CMBH) in Gaza in a program for trauma healing.
(Dr. Yaghi, third from left, with CMBH team)
Dr. Yaghi authored and co-authored academic articles in Arabic and English on trauma and rehabilitation, including fifteen articles published in English in the final six years of his life. He also wrote two manuals in Arabic on teaching and learning for students with special needs and a guide to implementing inclusive education in UNRWA schools. A recently published article, “Teachers’ Training Needs to Respond to Psychological Needs of Students with Disability in Line with Inclusive Education,” appeared in June of 2023 in the Arid International Journal of Educational and Psychological Sciences. A final co-authored article, “Agency, Life Satisfaction, Hope, Potentially Traumatic Events, Trauma Symptoms, and Psychological Signs. A Two Waves Study with a Sample of Palestinian Children Living in Different Geographical Areas,” was published posthumously in Children and Youth Services Review in January 2025.
Dr. Yaghi was killed along with his wife, his children, and some 20 other family members, including his daughter Sumaia who also worked as a psychologist at CMBH, on 10 December 2023. Israeli aircraft bombed the house where they had sought refuge in the Jabalya Refugee Camp without prior warning.