The Israeli sources have acknowledged severe psychological trauma among Israeli military personnel due to the Gaza conflict, admitting that 43 soldiers have committed suicide since the start of war on Gaza in October 7, 2023, according to Saed News article in July 8, 2025.

 

On August 3, 2025, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that 7 IDF soldiers died by suicide in July. PTSD Veterans are desperately trying to stop the next one. "We have one goal: Stop the next suicide": A surge in soldier suicides among the IDF has driven longtime PTSD survivors to camp outside the IDF Headquarter. The state of Israel is not sending soldiers to jail for refusing to return to Gaza after they killed children or intentionally shooting themselves in the limbs, according to the Middle East Eye article.

 

Deliberately blowing up innocent civilians, watching while dogs eat body parts, running over pregnant women on the way to the hospital to deliver their babies with a tank, and laughing while shooting aid seekers will make anyone, even Israelis, choose death over life eventually. It must be awful having to live every day with your memories of guilt.

 

After former IDF soldier Itzik Saidian lit himself on fire as a cry of help at the Defense Ministry's Rehabilitation Division last April, Israel's Trauma and Resiliency Center (NATAL) has reported a 300% increase in calls to their emergency hotline.

 

Those ghosts will forever haunt and remind what crimes one has committed. It will catch up with all Israelis one way or another including the Jews (lone soldiers) from everywhere else in the West who commit these crimes. There must be a lot of PTSDS in the IDF for being ordered to shoot little children.

 

It would help all IDF soldiers to not commit atrocities and end the war against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and not to order their soldiers to murder innocent civilians and kill and maim children. Stop wars to steal land and natural resources and force young people to commit atrocities.

 

The Jewish Forward reported last month about a female baby killer who took her own life after being raped by fellow soldiers. Despite reporting the rape on the night it happened, the soldier was not taken to get treatment, her complaint was not passed on, her access to a weapon was not limited, and her parents were out of the country to provide her aid and comfort. This story has rocked the IDF- The so-called most moral army in the world. https://forward.com/.../israeli-soldier-kills-herself...

 

Further research reveals that the female soldier was released from the hospital without any military or family escort, according to Haaretz, which added that her immediate family was abroad at the time, and the IDF refused to release her name.

 

The soldier was not prevented from returning to her base, where she entered her commanding officer’s office, took his gun, and shot herself in the chest, after leaving behind a suicide note. She was found dead at the scene, according to Haaretz article.

 

Last July, Roi Wasserstein, 24, an IDF soldier who served in Gaza, died by suicide and the IDF did not recognize his as a fallen soldier because he was not on active duty at the time of his death. This was the result of committing crimes against innocent people in Gaza. Before he committed suicide, his mother said, "He told me he saw horrors," his mother Sigal recalled through tears. "He said to me: 'Mom, I smell the smell of the bodies, and I keep seeing the bodies all the time.'"

 

Rut Azulai, a newlywed widow of a baby killer and IDF soldier Avraham Azulai, revealed during her eulogy of her husband, "Every day when you came back from Gaza to sleep next to me, you'd tell me how many houses you demolished today and how many women and children you eliminated."

 

High suicide rates among IDF combat soldiers is a major problem. The trauma of fighting in Gaza will haunt the IDF soldiers for the rest of their lives. Burning children alive is bad for soldiers' minds. Intentionally starving innocents people, you will see in your dreams forever.

 

Mahmoud El-Youseph is a Palestinian freelance writer and retired U.S. Air Force veteran. He writes on U.S. foreign policy, Middle East affairs, and justice. Email: elyousseph6@yahoo.com