On Both Sides in the Mideast, Fear and Stress Are Building
Dr. Beny Sapir, a veterinarian, kept seeing certain symptoms in dogs and cats who lived on Jerusalem's margins, where the days and nights are pierced by gunfire, explosions and sirens. They would shake or stop eating. Some stopped going outside, even hid under the furniture.

That was when Dr. Sapir began prescribing Valium for the animals. "The family is nervous, so the dog is nervous," he said. "There is a lot — a lot — of stress."

The psychic shakiness of some household pets does not amount to much in a conflict that has lasted more than 17 months and claimed more than 1,400 human lives. But it is a sign of how fear, and coping with it, have become stitched into daily life here.

For those who know what the sounds signify, the effects have been more damaging. In Ramallah, occupied by Israeli forces for three days, families have been sleeping in their basements, ordering their children not to go outside, stretching out groceries to last until the crossfire dies away. Israel said today that its forces would soon begin to withdraw from the city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/international/middleeast/15MOOD.html