TEL AVIV: As Israel marks 1,000 days since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, children — many still coping with the psychological effects of the war — are beginning their summer vacation, with some navigating the uncertainties of traveling abroad amid rising antisemitism and others grappling at home with the anxieties of living in a society shaped by nearly three years of war on multiple fronts.

Lilach, 47, of Kibbutz Eilon, jut over a mile and a half from Israel’s border with Lebanon in the Western Galilee, told Fox News Digital she hopes her children — Yuval, Amit, and Yoni — will finally be able to enjoy a normal summer.

During the war, there was always concern about leaving home. The kids were barely in school and spent most of their time indoors in front of screens,” she said.

“I hope they can now spend time with their friends and enjoy activities together. Tomorrow, Yoni is going to an amusement park. I just want them to have fun, be with their friends and enjoy being kids again,” she added.

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Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, Lilach said, her children have had only one uninterrupted year of school.

“It was hard. They would start school, attend for a month or two, then classes would stop because of the war with Iran or fighting with Lebanon, and then resume. It was difficult to get back into a routine each time. It felt like starting a new school year over and over again,” she said.

Despite the repeated disruptions, Lilach said her daughter Amit graduated from high school thanks to her determination and private tutoring. Yoni, however, who has attention deficit disorder, struggled with spending weeks at home during the fighting and will move to a smaller classroom next year to receive additional support.

Evacuated with her family a day after the Oct. 7 attacks, Anat, 50, of Kibbutz Yiftah in the Upper Galilee, less than two miles from Israel’s border with Lebanon, told Fox News Digital that her children changed schools three times before the family returned home in February 2025. During Israel’s recent war with Iran, they were again out of school for about six weeks.

“Every day, having my 10-year-old log on to Zoom for online classes was a challenge. It was very difficult to maintain a routine and continuity in her learning,” Anat said.

With the family hoping to travel abroad this summer, Anat said she has tried to shelter her children from the tidal wave of antisemitism that has emerged globally over the past three years of war.

“We don’t talk at home about people around the world who hate us. We love everyone, and we don’t talk about hate, period. For them, traveling is something wonderful that they can’t wait for,” she said. “Despite how difficult it has been, our children are strong. They have grown up quickly because of everything they’ve been through and know how to cope. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves—we’re fighters.”

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Nufar Bar Lipshatz, a developmental psychologist in the Northern District of Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest healthcare provider, said many children continue to show signs of trauma.

According to data she cited from Israel’s National Insurance Institute, 25,274 children had been officially recognized as victims of hostile acts between Oct. 7, 2023 and the end of 2025. She also referenced a joint study by the Goshen organization and the Israeli Pediatric Association showing that 84% of Israeli children exhibited signs of emotional distress by late 2023 following the cross-border terror assault from Gaza and Hezbollah’s entry into the war from Lebanon the following day.

“We see many symptoms that are connected but manifest differently in each child, whether it’s a child who can’t speak, wets their pants, or develops [nervous] tics,” Bar Lipshatz said. “Trauma is real, and children can’t always express it with words, so they act it out. They reenact running to shelters, their father being deployed, war, aggression and kidnappings during play.”

She recalled treating a girl who became unable to ride her bicycle because she constantly looked over her shoulder, checking whether someone was behind her.

While summer vacation may offer temporary relief, Bar Lipshatz warned that long breaks from routine can reinforce anxiety.

“We know from research that children need stability and routine because it helps them feel safe. During school breaks, children may feel safer because they are avoiding situations that trigger stress, but over time they are also avoiding facing their fears,” she said. “We need to give parents and children the tools to cope with stress because it will not disappear simply by staying at home.”

Bar Lipshatz, who also works with autistic children, said travel itself can be challenging because unfamiliar sounds and crowded environments may trigger traumatic memories.

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“When you go on vacation, you go to places with lots of people and noise. What we think could be fun can actually become a trigger,” she said, recalling a trip to Romania where bear-warning sirens in a national park sounded identical to Israel’s missile alerts.

She noted that one of her young patients told her she feared traveling abroad because, despite the war, Israel felt more predictable than an unfamiliar country.

In a bid to maintain a sense of routine and help students catch up on lost time, the Israeli Ministry of Education told Fox News Digital that it will continue operating throughout the summer through programs serving approximately 1.12 million students, supported by an investment of about $270 million.

For the first time, middle school students will participate in summer programs focused on artificial intelligence, STEM subjects, mathematics, science, and English. The ministry said the highest participation rates are in northern and southern communities affected by the war.

It also said it will continue providing emotional support through its Psychological Counseling Service, expand psychological services for students in need, and keep its “Voice for All” support hotline operating throughout the summer.

“The education system will continue to support Israeli students during the summer vacation to ensure educational, emotional and social continuity for every student who needs it,” the ministry said.

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Children affected by the war are also attending summer camps such as those led by OneFamily, an organization that supports victims of terrorism and war and their families.

More than 400 children — each of whom has lost an immediate family member to terrorism or war, most since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks — will take part in OneFamily’s annual summer camp from July 8 to July 13 in the Golan Heights, where they will spend time with other children who share similar experiences of grief and loss.

A central focus of the camp is helping children build resilience while learning to cope with their grief. This year, the organization’s founding director, Chantal Belzberg, received the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

Activities include swimming, competitions, sports, but also therapeutic group dialogue circles. On the last night, some campers share stories about their lost loved ones and their own journey to healing, followed by a big concert.

“Children who have lost a parent, both parents or siblings to terrorism or acts of war don’t always want to go to therapy. But when you bring them together with other children who have experienced the same loss, it gives them strength and creates a therapeutic environment,” Belzberg told Fox News Digital.

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“They come to have fun, and through the activities they meet other children who have gone through the same thing. That’s when they begin to talk. Traditional support services are not always places where children want to go,” she continued.

“We bring them together so they meet children who truly understand them. They realize they are not alone and can build a community where they don’t feel isolated. One of the greatest challenges after trauma is isolation,” she added.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — When he wanted to give a gift to his father who sacrificed much to raise him as a single parent, Lee Geon Hui settled on an unusual idea: an AI-animated video message from his late grandfather, whom his father misses dearly.

Lee, 28, wrote a message and hired the Seoul-based tech company Vaice in December to make a short video clip showing a digital likeness of his grandfather delivering it. The virtual character called his father “my most precious son,” and apologized for making him help with farm work when he was a child and for opposing his son’s decision to become a hairstylist.

“My father said he wouldn’t watch the video. But then he did, and he shed tears. So I felt rewarded,” Lee, a 28-year-old office worker, said in a recent interview. “I wrote the script … as it was what I actually wanted to tell my father.”

A growing number of digitally-savvy South Koreans are experimenting with AI’s ability to produce video recreations of the dead: a number of startups offering videos featuring AI-produced recreations of loved ones, while TV shows have featured AI versions of dead pop stars and actors.

This emerging industry is causing both hopes and worries. Some say the practice can comfort grieving people, but others say it raises thorny ethical, psychological and legal questions.

“It’s a double-edged sword, as it deals with human emotions,” said Yong Man Ro, an AI expert at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. “As AI technologies become part of people’s lives, they can also bring about cultural experiences and shocks that we have never experienced.”

Many clients want AI versions of their late parents

Vaice’s CEO, Jeongu Won, said his company serves about 300 customers a month, mainly people in their 40s or 50s who want videos of their late parents. Others request videos of late grandparents as gifts for their own parents.

Won said his company needs a few photos and short voice samples of the deceased to make a likeness. A basic three-to-five-minute video costs 600,000 won ($390), he said.

Many customers play those AI videos when their family members get together for memorial rituals for their loved ones or major Korean holidays, said Won, adding that his clients typically write scripts. Won said most customers add the words “I love you,” and some reference regrets over unresolved conflicts with their late parents and hopes to overcome them.

Lee’s grandfather died unexpectedly in a car accident before he was born, and Lee said he felt his father regretted he wasn’t able to show his grandfather that he was doing well as a hairstylist and that he has a son.

“I don’t know much about my grandfather. But when I saw tears running down my father’s face, I felt a bit emotional as I realized my father still misses him,” Lee said.

AI grief tech triggers worries about ethical issues

When JL Standard launched a similar service five years ago, said company executive Choi Yu Ha, it was met with suspicion from some bereaved target customers who feared it would open up their grief. But acceptance of AI grief technology is spreading, helped by dead celebrities making simulated appearances on TV.

Won says he hasn’t heard from any customers who said his product made their grief harder to bear.

But observers warn that simulating the dead raises ethical questions, and could put some vulnerable people at risk if it blurs the line between reality and the virtual world.

Choung Wan, an emeritus professor at Seoul’s Kyung Hee University Law School, said laws are urgently needed to protect the dignity and other rights of the deceased. They should ban the creation of an AI-generated version of a dead person if the person opposed it before their death, he said, and put clear limits on commercial use of people’s images and voices.

Questions could grow more complicated as the technology develops

Experts say the ethical issues could be much harder to manage as they look ahead to the possibility of so-called “griefbots” or “deathbots,” which simulate two-way conversations between bereaved people and AI versions of dead loved ones. Startups are already experimenting with such products.

“Psychologically, a healthy mourning involves a process to acknowledge the absence of the deceased and pass through the pains of their losses,” Choung said. “But speaking with an AI system simulating a living person could undermine the process of accepting deaths and rather cause a negative effect of leaving bereaved families trapped in a fantasy.”

Won said he’s cautious about launching an AI chatbot service because real-time conversations with people could not be supervised by company officials and may cause unexpected ethical problems.

Still, both the technology and acceptance of it are moving quickly.

Choi said technological advances make it possible to replicate even the wrinkles and skin pores of a deceased person in remarkable detail, and that customers now say their loved ones’ AI likenesses really look like them.

Ro said interactive chatbots have technological hurdles to overcome, such as a mismatch between their verbal comments and their facial expressions. They also tend to seem less human when conversations get longer.

“Some people ask why we can’t have an hour-long conversation with chatbots, though we can talk with them for five minutes. There are efforts to develop the technology to make an hour-long conversation possible,” Ro said.

Ro said he made a one-minute video with AI likenesses of his own parents after they both died last year and played it at a gathering with his siblings. When the family saw digital versions of their parents saying “Don’t worry” and “Take care,” they were all very moved.

But Ro said he and his siblings didn’t watch it again. “One time was enough to watch it to honor our late parents who were quite elderly. We moved on,” he said.