The distressed caller was on the line from Gaza when an explosion drowned out his voice and the line suddenly went dead.

For counselors at the Sawa 121 (One-to-One) Palestinian helpline in Ramallah, it is a grimly familiar end to calls in times of conflict, most recently during the 11-day hostilities between Israel and Hamas in May.

Sawa - "Together" in Arabic - fielded around 37,000 calls during the May violence, twice its usual workload, with concerns such as safety, missing children and unexploded bombs added to the helpline's usual pleas for help with domestic abuse, child protection and mental health problems.