Background The rapid outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up various issues on social media platforms among school students. The dangerous issue is that misinformation, fake news, and rumours spread on social media faster than reliable information, and also faster than the virus itself, damaging the health systems and affecting the mental health of social media users. Objective The current study aims at determining how social media affects the spread of panic about COVID-19 among primary and secondary school students in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Methods The data were collected through an online questionnaire. By utilizing convenience sampling, we have reached a total of 1067 school students, aged between 6 and 18 years, from 56 schools located in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Independent Samples T-test, ANOVA, and chi-square tests were used to compare the data. Results The results showed that social media has a significant impact on spreading panic about COVID-19 among school students, with a potential negative impact on their mental health and psychological well-being. Facebook was the most common social media platform among students (81.8%), where female students had a higher likelihood than male students to use it to get news about COVID-19 (p < 0.001). Health news was the most frequently topic seen, read, or heard (n = 529, 56.2%) during the COVID-19 pandemic, where males were more likely to follow health news than females (p < 0.001). The majority of the students (n = 736, 78.1%) were psychologically affected, whereas those physically affected were the lowest (n = 12, 1.3%). Female students were psychologically affected and experienced greater fear significantly more than male students (p < 0.001). The effect of social media panic depending on a student's age and gender. (p < 0.001). This study showed a significant positive correlation between social media and spreading panic about COVID-19 (R = 0.891). Conclusions During the closure of schools, students are using social media to continue their learning as well as to know more information about the COVID-19 outbreak. Social media has a main role in rapidly spreading of panic about the COVID-19 pandemic among students in the Gaza Strip.

As COVID-19 rapidly spread at the globe, it has attracted significant attention and brought unprecedented efforts, resulting in stops of routine activities and changes in day-to-day behavioral patterns of the public. To mitigate its impact on health bodies and systems, societies, and economies, many countries have adopted nonpharmacological preventive procedures such as social or spatial distancing, using protective gloves and masks, as well as frequently handwashing; these have been extensively implemented. However, preventive procedures aimed at protecting the healthcare systems have side-effects that might have a big impact on the elderly's life. In this article, we highlight the main challenges facing older adults during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the importance of preventive measures in the protection of elderly health and containing the outbreak of COVID-19, they will undoubtedly have short and long term consequences for the wellbeing and mental health of the older adults.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic considers a threat to students’ well-being and mental health. The current descriptive cross-sectional study aims to identify psychological distress among school students during the lockdown period. Methods This study was carried out in a sample of 420 primary and secondary school students from June 10 to July 13, 2020, in the Gaza Strip in Palestine. Data was collected using an online questionnaire that included informed consent, socio-demographic questions, and a psychometric scale (DASS-21). Results The results revealed that most students experienced moderate to severe levels of anxiety (89.1%) and depression (72.1%), whereas less than half of them (35.7%) experienced moderate to severe stress. Stress, anxiety and depression scores were significantly different across gender, age groups, family size, and family's economic status. The results showed that gender (β = -0.174, p < 0.001), age (β = −0.155, p = 0.001) and economic level of family (β = −0.147, p = 0.002) were negative predictors correlated with stress. Family size (β = 0.156, p = 0.001) played a positive role in stress. It was found that gender (β = −0.105, p = 0.031), age (β = −0.135, p = 0.006) and economic level of family (β = −0.136, p = 0.005) were negative predictors correlated with anxiety, whereas family size (β = 0.139, p = 0.004) played a positive role in anxiety. For depression, gender (β = −0.162, p = 0.001), age (β = −0.160, p = 0.001) and economic level of family (β = −0.131, p = 0.007) were negative predictors correlated with depression, whereas family size (β = −0.133, p = 0.006) was found to be a positive predictor. Concerns about the influence of COVID-19 on economic, education, and daily life were positively correlated to the levels of depression, anxiety and stress, whereas the availability of social support was negatively correlated. Conclusion The development of a health protocol for influenced students is urgently needed to maintain them remain resilient during dangerous times.

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In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many countries had implemented school closures by March 6, 2020. This study aimed to evaluate the social and economic impact of school closure on the students' families. Households were surveyed using an online questionnaire interview to obtain information on adherence to, socioeconomic impact by and inconveniences of school closure. The current study showed that school closures have profound economic and social consequences in the Gaza Strip. Most of the interviewed households (88.1%) were supportive of the school closure, whereas only 11.9% did not support it. Despite the restriction on attending gatherings or visiting public places, 30.5% of the school student visited relatives, 8.5% went to public places, and 3.4% went to parents' workplaces. Overall, 25.4% of the interviewed households reported workplace absenteeism, whereas the highest percentage (74.6%) were not absenteeism from their work. The economic harms of school closures are high, where 77.9% of households reported their wage loss during the closure. The daily wage lost per household ranged from 3 to 265 ILS.

During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital learning has reshaped mathematics education in different ways. In particular, different social media platforms have acquired an unforeseen prominence as a way to enhance mathematics learning and to model somehow the face-to-face classroom interactions abruptly interrupted. How primary and secondary students have reacted or responded to these changes in the initial learning conditions is the main aim of this study. With this purpose in mind data was collected from 3179 students from the Gaza Strip by means of a validated rating scale and then a cluster analysis approach was applied that revealed the existence of three clusters. K-means cluster analysis was applied to analyze data as an exploratory approach to identify structures within the data. Also, chi-square was applied to identify differences between the clusters with regard to demographic characteristics. Regarding the grouping of participants in clusters the analysis performed lead to the identification of three clusters: Cluster 1, 2 and 3 had 2001, 824 and 354 cases, respectively. These clusters were grouped depending on employ social media platforms used by the students to reinforcement their mathematics learning. Participants in Cluster 3 exhibited the highest proficiency in the usage of social media for mathematics learning as compared to those in Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. This means that students in cluster 1 are more likely to exhibit negative attitudes and low levels in the skills related to using digital technology and the employment of social media in mathematics learning. The results showed that there were no significant differences between cluster-groups with regard to gender, age, and type of school. In contrast, significant differences were found among the three clusters with regards to the educational level of parents and the economic status of the family. However, the overall results show that digital learning is considered a positive response to the school closure in the time of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The outbreak of novel COVID-19 has opened up different issues for social media including the life-endangering consequences of supposed cures, misleading rumors, and conspiracy theories about the origin of coronavirus. These dangerous rumors circulated the world and thus paired with racism and mass fearmongering all closely linked to the new "Infomedia" systems of the present century characterized by the multiplicity of means of communication between people especially platforms of social media. The sharing of misinformation has an influence beyond the harm of the coronavirus itself. Many posts were seen related to treatments that are not proven, techniques to mitigate exposure, and infection that are either not proven and/or filled with a lot of misleading information, and instruction for individuals to stock up on supplies and food. Taking into account the present situation, there is an important need to consider and assess the awareness of the public towards the dangerous impact of the spread of misinformation in the time of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Abstract. Abd Rabou AN, Radwan ES. 2017. The current status of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and its uses in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Biodiversitas 18: 1047-1061. The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is considered one of the most important fruit crops in Palestine. It has a major socio-economic importance due to its commercial, nutritional, environmental, social, health and religious values. Because of its importance as a resistant and strategic crop facing serious local threats like pest infestation, underdeveloped marketing and mismanagement, the current study comes to investigate the status of the date palm tree and its uses in the Gaza Strip. Field surveys and institutional visits were applied to fulfill the purpose of the study. The current study revealed a total number of 250,000 trees of date palm existing in the Gaza Strip, with 40% of the dates is concentrated in the Middle Governorate. At least, 19 cultivars have been recorded locally with the 'Hayani', 'Barhee' and 'Bentaisha' being the most common. The average date production in the last few years was 12,000 -15,000 ton per year. More than 40 industries and uses associated with the date palm tree have been observed in the Gaza Strip, with the handicraft production and food industries are the main creative uses by the Palestinian community. Finally, the study recommends the improvement of the processes of date palm cultivation, production, protection, and marketing. The cooperation of different parties is very essential to ensure good sustainable development and uses of the date palm in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.