From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 9, 2026
Defense Ministry says it faces massive shortage of therapists to treat soldiers with PTSD
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The defense ministry is currently grappling with a shortage of therapists for IDF combatants suffering from post-traumatic stress following the war in Gaza, the defense ministry tells lawmakers.
Addressing the Knesset Health Committee, Ronit Sandrovich, the head of the Defense Ministry’s Social Services Responses Division, states that there is only one caseworker for approximately 850 injured individuals.
“We owe our psychological casualties, the post-trauma victims. The State of Israel sent them into battle, or was responsible for them in moments of horror, and now it is our duty to stand by them in the rehabilitation process,” says chairwoman Limor Son Har-Melech, adding that her committee will “ensure that their rehabilitation is at the top of the healthcare system’s priorities.”
Addressing the committee, Micha Katz, one of the leaders of a long-running combat-trauma victims protest outside the Knesset, called for the development of a family-based rehabilitation framework and work to reintegrate and empower PTSD-sufferers while Avichai Levi, another trauma victim, accuses the public of forgetting him and his comrades.
“We went out to die and we came back dead. Do some soul-searching,” he declares.
The Times of Israel Community.