Israeli soldier suicides surge amid Gaza, Lebanon war trauma
According to Haaretz, the number of suicides in the Israeli occupation forces has risen to unprecedented levels since the war began.
The report revealed that between October 7 and the end of 2023, seven soldiers took their own lives, while 21 suicides were recorded in 2024. Since the start of 2025, approximately 14 soldiers have reportedly died by suicide.
Despite the rising trend, the Israeli occupation forces has refused to disclose the official number of suicides for the current year, stating it will release a full report only at the end of 2025.
The secrecy has raised questions about transparency within the military command, particularly as psychological trauma among troops continues to escalate.
Over the weekend, another occupation soldier reportedly took his own life after suffering from severe psychological distress following his deployment in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
The war's mental health toll has become a critical issue for the Israeli regime, especially as reports indicate a severe manpower shortage in the ranks.
As reported by Haaretz, the Israeli military has begun enlisting reservists suffering from trauma and other psychological conditions, even if they are currently undergoing treatment.
One commander told the newspaper, 'Because our soldiers are not committed to fighting, we are forced to recruit individuals who are not in a stable mental state,' adding, 'We fight with what we have, even if we are certain their psychological conditions are unstable.'
Read more: Al-Qassam fighters ambush Israeli forces in eastern Gaza
According to Haaretz, two recently recalled soldiers committed suicide, further intensifying scrutiny of the military's handling of mental health issues.
The total number of Israeli soldier suicides since October 7, 2023, has reportedly reached at least 35 by the end of 2024. Informed sources noted that the military has buried several soldiers who died by suicide without holding military funerals or issuing official statements.
One officer told Haaretz that the military has recently resorted to pressuring soldiers to engage in combat but is facing difficulties in mobilizing them for service.
The report also revealed manipulation in the published compliance rates, with both officers and soldiers confirming that the official figures do not accurately represent the true level of participation among reservists.
Security sources stressed to the newspaper that the Israeli military needs to increase its troop numbers fourfold in order to control key points in the Gaza Strip, amid mounting security challenges.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Mayadeen
3 days ago
- Al Mayadeen
Starved and slaughtered: Palestinians bombed at Gaza food 'aid site'
In one of the most harrowing massacres to date, Israeli occupation forces conducted a mass killing of starved Palestinians awaiting food aid in Khan Younis early Tuesday morning, killing more than 60 Palestinians and injuring over 200 others, including at least 20 in critical condition. The attack, confirmed by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, struck near the al-Tahlia roundabout, a known distribution point for dwindling humanitarian relief. Survivors described scenes of utter horror: children torn apart by shrapnel, bloodied bodies strewn among plastic bags of flour. Emergency, intensive care, and operating room departments are experiencing severe overcrowding with the influx of deaths and injuries, the Ministry revealed, highlighting the increasingly catastrophic situation of the healthcare system in the Strip. It revealed that medical teams are operating with limited supplies of life-saving medications and supplies, renewing its urgent appeal to all relevant authorities to increase relevant aid. Concurrently, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that two Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces near Street 10 in southern Gaza City. In a separate tragedy, an Israeli airstrike on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia, northern Gaza, killed a young Palestinian girl. #WATCH | Footage shows the aftermath of a massacre committed by the Israeli occupation, whereby 45 #Palestinians were martyred and hundreds were wounded as Israeli occupation forces targeted aid seekers, east of Khan Younis, southern #Gaza. total number of Palestinians killed across the Gaza Strip since dawn has climbed to 64, as Israeli forces continue to intensify attacks on civilians. Many of the victims were targeted while attempting to access humanitarian aid, with additional deaths and injuries reported in the north of the Strip during aid distribution. As Gaza's healthcare system teeters on collapse, Nasser Medical Complex, the main hospital in Khan Younis, struggles to absorb the influx of victims. Emergency rooms overflowed, surgeons worked without anesthesia, and corridors filled with the cries of grieving families. Doctors, already working on skeleton staff and minimal supplies, reported dozens of life-threatening injuries and warned that many more may succumb to injuries in the coming hours without urgent intervention. Even as scenes of carnage emerge daily from across Gaza, Western governments remain largely unshaken in their support. The US administration continues to funnel weapons and political cover. European capitals issue statements of 'concern' while abstaining from meaningful action. And the UN, constrained and defanged, pleads powerlessly. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Tuesday that hospitals received the bodies of 61 martyrs, including six retrieved from under the rubble, and 397 injuries over 24 hours. Many victims remain trapped beneath debris and along roads, unreachable due to continued bombardment. Since October 7, 2023, as of June 16, 2025, the death toll of the Israeli genocide in Gaza has surged to 55,493 Palestinians killed and 129,320 injured. Since March 18, 2025, the total toll has risen to 5,194 killed and 17,279 wounded. Moreover, as the Israeli-made famine looms over Gaza, 59 starved Palestinians were killed since early morning, and over 200 were injured while trying to receive aid at designated 'aid distribution sites' and were later transported to hospitals, as per the Ministry's report. The death toll among Palestinians killed while seeking food aid in designated distribution zones has now climbed to 397, with more than 3,031 others wounded, according to the report.
Al Mayadeen
3 days ago
- Al Mayadeen
26 Palestinians killed in latest wave of Israeli bombings on Gaza
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Saturday that hospitals received the bodies of 59 martyrs, including nine retrieved from under the rubble, and 208 injuries over 24 hours. Many victims remain trapped beneath debris and along roads, unreachable due to continued bombardment. Since October 7, 2023, as of June 16, 2025, the death toll of the Israeli genocide in Gaza has surged to 57,882 Palestinians killed and 138,095 injured. Since March 18, 2025, the total toll has risen to 7,311 killed and 26,054 wounded. Moreover, as the Israeli-made famine looms over Gaza, 17 starved Palestinians were killed since early morning, and over 53 were injured while trying to receive aid at designated 'aid distribution sites' and were later transported to hospitals, as per the Ministry's report. The death toll among Palestinians killed while seeking food aid in designated distribution zones has now climbed to 805, with more than 5,252 others wounded, according to the report. At least 26 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in a series of Israeli air and artillery strikes across the Gaza Strip. The attacks targeted residential buildings and shelters housing forcibly displaced families in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and Khan Younis. According to Al Mayadeen's correspondent, the bombardment intensified in the early hours, striking multiple densely populated areas. Casualties were reported in several neighborhoods, with a number of those killed being women and children. Among the victims was Yousef al-Zaq, a figure whose life came to symbolize the enduring struggle of the Palestinian people. He was killed when an airstrike struck his family's apartment on Al-Thawra Street in central Gaza. Born in 2008 inside Israeli prisons, Yousef was once recognized as the youngest prisoner in the world; a child whose first breath was taken behind bars, beside his detained mother, Fatima al-Zaq. Their story captured international attention at the time. Both were eventually released, but Yousef's life, marked from the start by occupation and resistance, ended under the same shadow that defined his birth. Born in an Israeli prison in 2008 before his mother's release, Yousef Al-Zaq, once the world's youngest prisoner was martyred today in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. death has resonated widely, highlighting the generational toll of the war on Palestinian families. In western Gaza City, four Palestinians were killed in a strike on a building that housed displaced individuals. Another strike targeted the home of the al-Safadi family on Yafa Street, resulting in the deaths of three people. In a separate incident, four Palestinians were killed near the Islamic University gate when a tent sheltering them was hit. Three others were killed in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood after a strike struck a residential apartment. Concurrently, a new massacre unfolded in the al-Manasra displacement camp in Deir al-Balah, where Sohaib al-Qarinawi, his wife, and their children were all killed when their tent was bombed. These attacks come amid a deepening humanitarian crisis, as tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians remain without safe shelter, frequently targeted in places once considered refuge. On a related note, the UN human rights office reported on Friday that it has documented at least 798 Palestinian fatalities linked to aid distribution points in Gaza, including those operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), as well as sites near humanitarian convoys run by other relief agencies, including the United Nations. The GHF, which began "distributing aid" in late May, relies on private US logistics and security contractors to deliver supplies into Gaza, bypassing the UN-coordinated aid system that "Israel" has accused of being vulnerable to diversion by Palestinian Resistance groups. The UN, however, has strongly criticized this parallel framework, calling it "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian neutrality principles. "Up until the seventh of July, we've recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys," said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), during a press briefing in Geneva.
Al Mayadeen
3 days ago
- Al Mayadeen
'Israel' kills 64 Palestinians, including children, in Gaza since dawn
64 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza since the early hours of Saturday, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported, as Israeli bombs rain down on the already devastated Strip and a dire humanitarian situation. Several civilians were martyred and others injured as the occupation bombed residential areas in Gaza City and Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Medical sources at Al-Awda Hospital confirmed the arrival of eight martyrs, including five children, along with 18 wounded individuals, most of whom were children. The casualties followed the targeting of a group of civilians in the Camp 2 area of Al-Nuseirat. In western Gaza City, occupation aircraft targeted a desalination plant near the Bank of Palestine in the al-Jundi al-Majhoul neighborhood, resulting in additional civilian casualties. Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces carried out demolitions of residential buildings around the Al-Katiba and Al-Mahatta areas in northern Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip. The cumulative death toll, as of Saturday, has spiked to 57,338 Palestinians killed and 135,957 others injured since October 7, 2023. Meanwhile, Gaza's healthcare system continues spiraling toward a complete collapse as a direct result of Israeli aggression and deliberate targeting of hospitals, clinics, medical centers, and medical personnel. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, has warned that the health system in the Gaza Strip is facing a 'systematic and deliberate assault' by the Israeli occupation, as part of a broader campaign undermining the right to life and basic human dignity. In an exclusive interview with Al Mayadeen, Mofokeng stated that 'the right to life no longer exists in Gaza' and that 'the chance of survival has become non-existent' amid the continuing aggression. She emphasized that she had repeatedly issued early warnings to the Israeli occupation regarding its obligations under international law but received no response. Describing the humanitarian and medical conditions in Gaza as catastrophic, Mofokeng said they 'do not allow for a dignified life or a society capable of survival or growth.' In addition to the direct injuries caused by relentless attacks, she highlighted the severe psychological toll on Gaza's residents, who suffer from trauma, chronic stress, and sleep deprivation, conditions that further devastate their physical and mental well-being. Mofokeng condemned the Israeli occupation's blockade and repeated attacks on UN and relief agencies, calling it part of a 'broader plan to dismantle the human rights system and evade accountability.' The destruction of humanitarian infrastructure and the forced shutdown of aid agencies were not incidental, she stressed, but intentional, and facilitated by the political protection the Israeli regime receives from powerful countries, even within the UN system. Read more: Malnutrition deaths rise in Gaza, hit 66; WHO warns of extreme crisis
