Reservists being called up despite recognized mental wounds, including PTSD — report
Haaretz identifies 2 reservists with trauma diagnoses who died by suicide after being called up; report blasts ‘Kafkaesque’ lack of coordination between Defense Ministry and IDF
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.
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’s new offensive in the Gaza Strip.
However, no one knows the exact numbers, due to what the report called a “horrendous, sometimes Kafkaesque, lack of synchronization between the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces.”
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.
Moreover, the shortage of manpower in the military has resulted in officers turning a blind eye to soldiers’ mental health issues, with one armored battalion commander telling the newspaper: “People simply aren’t coming. They’re exhausted and have problems at home and at work. So we’re recruiting others, including some who aren’t 100 percent.”
“There’s nothing to be done,” the commander said. “National security comes first, and we’re working with what there is. If I identify an extreme case, of course I’ll reach out to a social worker, or release him. But honestly, you can’t always tell. It’s already happened that I’ve missed soldiers in distress, and it’s ended badly.”
Moreover, the military’s own figures do not include soldiers who took their own lives after being released from active duty.
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.
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.
One soldier was called up to reserve duty on October 8, 2023 — a day after the Hamas onslaught that started the war — and then served as a combat medic for months in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. He had attempted suicide several times during his service as a conscript — but no one was aware of this, apparently, when he was called up for reserve duty.
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 — but he then returned to reserves, with no one asking any questions of him, the report said.
While on break, the soldier — who at this point was diagnosed with PTSD — 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.
The other case was that of Eliran Mizrahi, 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.
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.
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.
Nevertheless, Benaim said, the military reached out to him last January asking him to show up to reserve duty in April — and when he told the army that he was recognized as psychologically disabled, they insisted.
“She said, ‘I don’t want to argue with you,’ and stressed that I was demanded to show up ‘like every other reserve soldier,'” he recalled.
Only after Haaretz reached out was the order revoked, the newspaper said, though Benaim still has not been fully released from the reserves.
Army reluctant to check soldiers’ mental state
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.
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 “a drop in the sea.”
According to the report, however, the army is reluctant to take such measures. Someone in the IDF Personnel Directorate told the newspaper: “Recommendations like these have already been raised in conversations, and we’ve encountered obstacles from senior officers.”
The army source told Haaretz: “At 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’ mental state could open Pandora’s box, and leave them without manpower.”
In response to the Haaretz report, the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department said that, since the start of the war, it “has 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.”
In a lengthy response, the IDF said its policy is “to 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.”
The army added: “It is the duty of every service member, in regular service or in reserves, to notify the IDF of any change in their medical situation.”
The Times of Israel Community.