37 deaths since start of 2024: Knesset subcommittee holds special session on suicide rates among IDF soldiers, reservists

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Human Resources Subcommittee held a special session earlier today to address the growing number of suicides among IDF soldiers, and particularly among reservists serving since the war’s outbreak on October 7, 2023.

The discussion featured emotional testimony from Neta Dagan, whose twin brother, Air Force Maj. Asaf Dagan, died by suicide last year.

“Assaf asked to see a mental health officer several times. A month before he took his own life, my mother warned a senior commander in the Air Force that he was going to commit suicide,” she said. “Suicide is not fate — it’s in our hands to change it.”

During the meeting, Brig. Gen. Amir Vadmani, chief of staff of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, said 16 suicides have been recorded so far in 2025, and 21 were recorded throughout 2024.

While rates among compulsory service members have remained stable, there has been a significant rise among reservists — a population that has expanded dramatically since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

In response, the IDF has increased its number of mental health officers, opened 24/7 support hotlines, and expanded combat stress units and PTSD care — including within active combat zones.

Still, Likud MK Keti Shitrit warned that the country is “facing a tsunami” and demanded full transparency from the army, saying, “Our best sons and daughters carry a heavy burden even after leaving the battlefield. We don’t have the privilege or time to wait. I am demanding that the army establish a committee with authority and clear objectives, with full transparency.”

Last week, the head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, ordered the establishment of a panel of experts to “examine the response provided to discharged soldiers and reservists who are not on active duty and who ended their lives following their military service.”

The military said the committee will be headed by former Personnel Directorate chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Moti Almoz, and will include IDF medical and mental health professionals, legal advisors, casualty officers, and Defense Ministry representatives.

Committee chair Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern concluded the session by praising the IDF’s efforts but urging further improvement: “We can’t prevent trauma, but we can promise that no one will be left to face it alone. Mental health support is a moral obligation that saves lives in the most literal sense of the word.