38 Israeli soldiers commit suicide following war in Gaza, Lebanon

Admin I Sunday, January 05, 2025

 

TEL AVIV – At least 38 soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces, IDF have committed suicide between 2023 and 2024 since Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon commenced.

Among the soldiers are pilots who have been responsible for bombing innocent women and children and many others in the Gaza Strip.

About 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, most of them women and children.

Quoting Israeli military, the military correspondent for Kan Channel, Doron Kadosh said  suicide has risen in the military amid the war, as it releases statistics of fatalities from the past two years.

Quoting army’s data, he said 38 soldiers were believed to have taken their own lives in 2023 and 2024.

According to him, in 2022, the army recorded 14 suicides and 11 in 2021.

The statistics show that 558 soldiers were killed in 2023, including 512 during operational activity and three in terror attacks.

Sixteen soldiers died in accidents — two in training, four in civilian car crashes, five in military car crashes, one as a result of an accidental weapon discharge, and four in other incidents — and 10 died of various illness in 2023.

In 2023, he said that 17 soldiers were believed to have taken their own lives.

Those involved he said include seven conscripts, four career soldiers, and six reservists. Seven of the suspected suicides in 2023 were after the October 7, 2023, he said.

According to him in the past year, the total number of fatalities in the army has decreased compared to the previous year, but that the number of suicides has risen.

In 2024, the army, he said recorded a total of 363 deaths in the military, including 295 in operational activity and 11 in terror attacks.

In addition, twenty-three soldiers died in accidents — 17 in civilian car crashes, three in military car crashes, and three in other incidents — and 13 died by illness in 2024.

In 2024, the army says at least 21 soldiers died by suspected suicide, including seven conscripts, two career soldiers, and 12 reservists.

The high number of reservist suicides is explained as a result of nearly 300,000 reservists during the war.

All of the 38 suspected suicides in 2023 and 2024 were male troops, the reporter said.

He said the army is working to prevent suicides in the military, including by opening a 24/7 helpline, which has received over 3,900 calls since it was established last October.

The army has also called up over 800 reservist mental health officers amid the war.

Since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, the army says 891 soldiers have died, not all of them in combat.

They include 329 during the October 7 , at least 390 during fighting in Gaza, 37 in attacks on northern “israel”, 50 during fighting inside Lebanon, and 11 in the West Bank.