{"id":309086,"date":"2025-05-22T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T05:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=309086"},"modified":"2025-05-23T06:43:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T06:43:51","slug":"reservists-being-called-up-despite-recognized-mental-wounds-including-ptsd-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=309086","title":{"rendered":"Reservists being called up despite recognized mental wounds, including PTSD \u2014 report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Times of Israel \u2013 May 19, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Of the at least 35 active-duty soldiers who have died by suicide since the start of the ongoing war, several had already been recognized as suffering serious mental health issues before they were last called up to serve, including PTSD diagnoses, according to a lengthy Haaretz report published Sunday.<\/p>\n

According to the investigation, an estimated hundreds or thousands of psychologically wounded soldiers who have reached out to the Defense Ministry were called up to reserves in the most recent mobilization, ahead of the military\u2019s new offensive in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

However, no one knows the exact numbers, due to what the report called a \u201chorrendous, sometimes Kafkaesque, lack of synchronization between the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation found that some 9,000 soldiers are recognized by the Defense Ministry as psychologically wounded as a result of the current war. There is no list, however, of all psychologically wounded soldiers, including those from previous wars, the IDF admitted, according to the report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the shortage of manpower<\/a> in the military has resulted in officers turning a blind eye to soldiers\u2019 mental health issues, with one armored battalion commander telling the newspaper: \u201cPeople simply aren\u2019t coming. They\u2019re exhausted and have problems at home and at work. So we\u2019re recruiting others, including some who aren\u2019t 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to be done,\u201d the commander said. \u201cNational security comes first, and we\u2019re working with what there is. If I identify an extreme case, of course I\u2019ll reach out to a social worker, or release him. But honestly, you can\u2019t always tell. It\u2019s already happened that I\u2019ve missed soldiers in distress, and it\u2019s ended badly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, the military\u2019s own figures do not include soldiers who took their own lives after being released from active duty.<\/p>\n

The Haaretz investigation found that, since the start of the war, 10 released soldiers died by suicide after suffering mental challenges that, according to members of their family, were caused by their military service. Some, though not all of them, were recognized as psychologically wounded or disabled prior to their deaths. Four of them fought in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Haaretz identified two cases of soldiers with PTSD diagnoses who took their own lives after serving in Gaza during the ongoing war, who were called up to reserves after receiving the diagnosis.<\/p>\n

One soldier was called up to reserve duty on October 8, 2023 \u2014 a day after the Hamas onslaught that started the war \u2014 and then served as a combat medic for months in southern Gaza\u2019s Khan Younis. He had attempted suicide several times during his service as a conscript \u2014 but no one was aware of this, apparently, when he was called up for reserve duty.<\/p>\n

After his first round in the reserves in the ongoing war, the soldier received intensive psychiatric care and was recognized as war-wounded by the Defense Ministry as a result of his mental injuries \u2014 but he then returned to reserves, with no one asking any questions of him, the report said.<\/p>\n

While on break, the soldier \u2014 who at this point was diagnosed with PTSD \u2014 called his commander, and said his mental state had begun to deteriorate, and asked to be released. The commander approved the request, and told the reservist he would be released as soon as he returned to his base. Hours later, the 25-year-old soldier used his army weapon to take his own life.<\/p>\n

The other case was that of Eliran Mizrahi<\/a>, who was called into the reserves shortly after October 7, and was initially assigned to help clear the bodies of those murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Nova festival. He was then sent into Gaza, where he served as a combat engineer until he was injured in April 2024.<\/p>\n

Mizrahi was recognized as a disabled IDF veteran and diagnosed with PTSD, but later received an order to report for duty in Rafah. Two days before he was slated to return to serve, he died by suicide<\/p>\n

Another soldier interviewed in the article, Amiel Benaim, was also involved in caring for the bodies of those murdered during the Hamas invasion on October 7, and has since suffered serious PTSD, for which he was recognized by the Defense Ministry as psychologically disabled.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Benaim said, the military reached out to him last January asking him to show up to reserve duty in April \u2014 and when he told the army that he was recognized as psychologically disabled, they insisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018I don\u2019t want to argue with you,\u2019 and stressed that I was demanded to show up \u2018like every other reserve soldier,’\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Only after Haaretz reached out was the order revoked, the newspaper said, though Benaim still has not been fully released from the reserves.<\/p>\n

Army reluctant to check soldiers\u2019 mental state<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to a longtime army directive, soldiers are obligated to notify the military of any change in their medical condition, including psychological developments. But most soldiers are not aware of this order, and even if they are, they may not want to comply with it, Haaretz reported.<\/p>\n

One expert told the newspaper that the military should require all soldiers to fill out a survey concerning PTSD symptoms, as a safeguard before they enlist to the reserves. Those who have already reached out for help, he said, are \u201ca drop in the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the report, however, the army is reluctant to take such measures. Someone in the IDF Personnel Directorate told the newspaper: \u201cRecommendations like these have already been raised in conversations, and we\u2019ve encountered obstacles from senior officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The army source told Haaretz: \u201cAt the end of the day, the IDF needs a lot of combat soldiers to complete the missions demanded of it by the political echelon, and officers are scared that checking the soldiers\u2019 mental state could open Pandora\u2019s box, and leave them without manpower.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the Haaretz report, the Defense Ministry\u2019s Rehabilitation Department said that, since the start of the war, it \u201chas been operating in full, vital, and important cooperation with the IDF, the Health Ministry, the IDF Disabled Veterans Organization, and all bodies who are engaged day and night in the rehabilitation of the IDF wounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a lengthy response, the IDF said its policy is \u201cto provide professional, accessible, and sensitive care, in a proactive manner, in order to reach as many service people as possible who are suffering from distress, to diagnose and offer appropriate treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The army added: \u201cIt is the duty of every service member, in regular service or in reserves, to notify the IDF of any change in their medical situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The war in Gaza is taking its toll on Israeli soldiers. Since the start of the campaign at 35 IDF soldiers have committed suicide. However, the IDF\u2019s manpower shortage is such that officers often turn a blind eye to soldiers with mental health problems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=309086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309087,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309086\/revisions\/309087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=309086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=309086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=309086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}