Palestine

At least 10 active-duty soldiers have died by suicide since the beginning of the year, including six in April, Haaretz has learned. Three other soldiers who served in the reserves during the war died by suicide this month while no longer in active service. Two police officers, including a conscripted Border Police officer, also died by suicide this month.

The data points to a continued rise in suicides within the defense establishment, a trend that began after the outbreak of the war on October 7. Army sources acknowledged that they are struggling to take effective steps to reduce the phenomenon, especially in cases where distressed soldiers do not seek treatment.

"At the beginning of the war, we thought we had the situation under control," a senior official in the IDF Manpower Directorate recently admitted, "and it blew up in our faces." Several other officers in the directorate attributed the high number of suicides this month to Memorial Day events and the heavy focus on bereavement and loss. Mental health experts who spoke with Haaretz questioned that explanation, saying they had not seen a dramatic rise in suicides during this period in previous years.

"It's possible that these events have some influence, but it cannot be definitively determined," one expert said. According to officers in the Manpower Directorate, the prolonged fighting has also taken a toll. A relatively small number of service members continue to carry an accumulating burden, affecting their mental health and possibly contributing to the rise in suicides.

Activists who work with service members suffering from military related psychological injuries offered another explanation in conversations with Haaretz. They said the scope of mental health support provided by the IDF has declined, despite the army's public claims to the contrary.

In February, the military decided to cancel psychological debriefing days for reservists that had been held before their return to civilian life. After the war with Iran and the increase in the defense budget, the army decided to reinstate the debriefings, though not across the board. Haaretz learned of service members on the northern border and in the West Bank who were released in recent weeks without meeting any professional.

"It's simply irresponsible to send us home like this," one of them said. "They spend billions on munitions and interceptors, and they save money on this?"

Several reserve mental health officers said even these debriefing days are not an adequate solution for soldiers, some of whom have served hundreds of days during the war.

"Ultimately, it's a meeting of a few hours, and in most cases it's not led by a clinical psychologist," one officer said. "It's a start, but it's really not enough. It's a bit like putting a Band Aid on a bleeding main artery."

Several elite units decided to hold more comprehensive psychological debriefing sessions, funded through donations.

Soldiers also reported a decline in the presence of mental health officers in the field. Some said they had not met with any officer after being involved in casualty incidents in southern Lebanon. The army also continued recruiting psychologically injured individuals during the war, even after they had been registered with the Defense Ministry because of their mental state and before any medical committee had assessed their disability status. This was done without checking their fitness for service.

In many cases, as reported by Haaretz, commanders pressured soldiers with PTSD to report for duty and even threatened them with arrest. During the war, dozens of conscripted soldiers said commanders prevented them from receiving mental health treatment. Some did so because of growing manpower shortages in combat brigades that made missions harder to complete. Others acted out of outdated views regarding mental health.

These circumstances, said a former head of the clinical branch of mental health in the IDF, could significantly affect suicide rates.

"Not every person can be saved, and the army cannot place all its faith in the mental health system," he said. "But a review of the cases suggests that at least some of them could have been saved if commanders had paid attention to warning signs. The system must improve. This is no longer just a warning. It is a real alarm."

The broader data also raises concern. In the decade before the October 7 war, the average number of army suicides was 12 per year. Since then, the number has risen. From October 7, 2023, through the end of that year, seven active-duty soldiers died by suicide. In 2024, 21 soldiers took their own lives. Last year, the total reached 22, the highest figure in the past 15 years.

IDF data provides only a partial picture because it does not include soldiers who died by suicide after leaving active service. For years, the army avoided addressing the issue, arguing that released soldiers were no longer its responsibility. However, a series of media reports about soldiers who participated in the war and later died by suicide after returning to civilian life forced the army to make at least some policy changes.

At the end of 2025, the army reported that its investigation had identified 15 such cases. Haaretz has learned of at least four additional cases since then, three of them in April. There were also several cases involving soldiers who served in previous wars, were diagnosed with PTSD, and died by suicide after October 7. The Defense Ministry also identified several reservists who served during the war, suffered mental distress, and later died from drug or alcohol overdoses after their release.

Officially, the army's Mental Health Administration says no clear common characteristics have been identified among suicide cases since the war began, whether in family status, economic background, or military circumstances. Officials attribute the rise in suicides during the war to the sharp increase in the number of service members, particularly in the reserve system.

The army further says its review of the cases found that some of those who died by suicide were not driven by exposure to combat. Last January, for example, a career lieutenant colonel serving in a noncombat role took his own life. People who knew him said his mental state deteriorated after ongoing harassment by the military system, which refused to fund his medical treatments, as well as because of debts he had accumulated. "His blood is on the IDF's hands," one friend said.

At the same time, the army has identified other suicides in which there was a clear connection to participation in the war. One was Eliran Mizrahi, a reserve bulldozer operator who died by suicide last June. He had served for months in the Gaza Strip and had been diagnosed with PTSD.

An armored corps soldier who had been diagnosed with PTSD and later returned to reserve duty was also among those who died by suicide. So was a reserve paramedic who treated casualties at the Nova party site near Re'im. Two drone operators also died by suicide during the war. Friends of one of them, a reserve lieutenant colonel, said he told them he could no longer bear the horrors of the war. The second, a young conscripted officer, died by suicide shortly after crashing a drone because of human error. Mental health experts told Haaretz that the case illustrates the far-reaching pressure placed on young service members during wartime.

Among those who died by suicide in April were soldiers whose combat involvement likely affected their mental state. One was a reservist in the assault team of the elite Shaldag commando unit, who killed himself last week on Independence Day. He had taken part in many operations throughout the war and also fought in the Gaza border communities on October 7. Another combat soldier, a conscript in the Kfir Brigade, also died by suicide this month, as did a 23-year-old career soldier in the armored corps. Another soldier, a reserve combat medic in Brigade 646, killed himself over the weekend in the Kiryat Ata cemetery after going home on leave.

The list of soldiers who died by suicide this month while not in active service also includes Yohanan Eliyahu Fredj, a 38-year-old resident of Kiryat Arba. He had been released from reserve duty after a severe incident during the 2014 Gaza war. When the current war began, he returned to the front and served in a combat role in the Carmeli Brigade. Another combat soldier in the brigade, in his 40s, died by suicide last week after prolonged wartime service.

"Forgive me for not seeing how hard it was for you," his widow said at his funeral.

"Just a few months ago, you called me because you wanted to consult about a young soldier you felt was not doing well in your reserve company," a friend said in his eulogy. "I asked you, 'What about you?' And you replied, as always, with a laugh: 'I'm fine.' I have no words to describe my pain and that of our friends."

Another soldier died by suicide after serving hundreds of reserve days during the war in the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, where he was frequently exposed to information about attacks and their results. "It was an especially demanding role," one friend said. "He would come home and couldn't sleep. I saw him fading and tried to help, but probably not enough. The army didn't do enough either."

The IDF said in response that it "views the mental health of its service members, both conscripts and reservists, as an integral part of its responsibility and commitment to them and their operational readiness. Despite the reduction in debriefing days under the format established this year, every brigade commander has a toolkit designed to assist service members and coordinate debriefing days according to emerging needs and the mission."

The army added that "since the beginning of the war, the mental health system has been significantly expanded, with the recruitment of hundreds of professionals and their deployment across all sectors, including the Gaza Strip and the northern border. Alongside this, debriefing processes and emotional support are provided to tens of thousands of service members, and the scope of the response continues to expand according to needs in the field.

"In addition, those who have completed reserve duty can contact the Combat Reaction Unit, which provides medical and mental health support to civilians released from conscript or reserve service who are suffering distress because of their participation in combat or operational activity during military service."

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit emphasized that "every suicide case is thoroughly examined and investigated by the authorized bodies, with the aim of learning lessons for the future."