The losses that Israel suffered during its war on the Gaza Strip affected the mental health of Israelis (Getty)
Israeli press sources reported today, Friday, that about 3,000 regular and reserve soldiers have been examined by mental health officers since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The head of the clinical department for mental illness in the Israeli army, Yehal Lifshitz, told the state-run Israeli Broadcasting Authority, “Since last October 7, thousands of soldiers, about 3,000 soldiers, regular and reserve, have been examined by mental health officers in the Israeli army, deployed in all sectors.” ".
She added that "more than two thousand people were treated by combat response teams on the ground near the combat zone," while others received treatment in units inside Israel.
She noted that more than a thousand regular and reserve soldiers “exhibited post-traumatic stress symptoms and were transferred to receive intensive treatment for psychological disorders at the Zarvin military base (central Israel).”
She continued, "Mental health officers (an army medical unit) actually began working on October 7, and by that Saturday afternoon, phone calls were already coming in from soldiers."
October 7, 2023 is the day on which the Palestinian resistance, led by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), carried out a surprise attack on the Israeli settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip.
In this context, Lifshitz explained that "about 82% of the soldiers who were examined were able to return to combat (the war)."
She spoke about, “As part of the activities of the Mental Health Department, group conversations are held with soldiers, with the commander, mental health professionals, and the Behavioral Sciences Department, to prepare soldiers to return to their homes, to return to the reserve, to increase cohesion, and to determine the locations of soldiers who need longer treatment.”
The Israeli army announced the recruitment of 360,000 members of the reserve army since the beginning of the war.
Repeatedly, the army announces that a number of its members are exposed to various health crises, including psychological and neurological problems, in addition to physical injuries resulting from battles and the spread of some infectious diseases.
psychiatric disturbances
A recent Israeli academic study reported, a few days ago, that about half of the population of northern Israel suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and does not want to return to their areas.
The study, the results of which were published by Israeli media, showed that 48% of the residents who were evacuated from the Eastern Galilee (near Lebanon) suffer from post-traumatic feelings at a rate three times greater than the situation was before last October 7, the date of the start of the battle. "Al-Aqsa Flood."
Recent Israeli studies and data on resilience and mental health in Israel during the period of the war on Gaza revealed a bleak picture of the effects of the sudden attack launched by the Palestinian resistance on the “Gaza envelope” settlements and southern towns on the 7th of last October, on the mental health of Israelis.
In a recently published study, the head of the Association for Mental Health in Israeli Society, Dr. Ido Luria, reviewed data that predicts that 625,000 people in Israel will suffer from psychological damage, as a result of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle and the ensuing war on the Gaza Strip, with increasing fears of High suicide rates.
On the other hand, Haaretz newspaper reported in a report weeks ago that while the mental health system in Israel faces the risk of collapse, dozens of psychiatrists are leaving for Britain in search of more stable living conditions.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which as of Friday left 27,131 martyrs and 66,287 injured, most of them children and women, according to the Palestinian authorities, and caused massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, according to the United Nations.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies