Israeli Soldiers’ Suicides Fall Between the Cracks — Just 1,000 Psychiatrists Struggle to Fill the Gap
Professor Eyal Fruchter, former Head of the Mental Health Department of the IDF who helped design the army’s suicide program warns of risk from battlefield and space between it and home.
When Professor Eyal Fruchter, former Head of the Mental Health Department in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and current Medical Director of Israel’s Collective Action for Resistance (ICAR), helped design the army’s suicide prevention program in the early 2000s, he never imagined it would need to be urgently adapted for a new demographic: reservists fighting a protracted war.
“We managed so far to lower the number of suicides in the military by 63%,” he told The Media Line. “The program was focusing on mandatory service soldiers, not on reserve force mission soldiers … Since the abrupt (outbreak) of the 7th of October war … now the military … re-adapted the program for suicide prevention also to the reserve force mission soldiers.”
When the civilian world is not in charge of you yet, and the military world is not in charge of you anymore, that’s a big crack that needs to be solved.
Fruchter, who continues to serve in reserve psychiatric missions and chairs the national PTSD advisory board to the Israeli government, warns of a growing risk not just from the battlefield but from the space between it and home. “The main problem is between the hands,” he said. “When the civilian world is not in charge of you yet, and the military world is not in charge of you anymore. That’s a big crack that needs to be solved.”
His metaphor is chilling. Four Israeli soldiers, three reservists and one on active duty, died by suicide in just over two weeks. That spike has reignited concerns about the psychological toll of the war on military personnel, especially as hundreds of thousands of Israelis rotate in and out of combat zones.
According to a September 2024 report by Israel’s Center for Information and Knowledge, the country is facing an unprecedented wave of mental health distress. The document, compiled by the Health Ministry in collaboration with academic and security experts, recorded over 200,000 calls for psychological support and a 900% increase in active clinical patients compared to prewar levels. Most significantly, the Ministry estimated that between 13,000 and 57,000 Israelis, including thousands of soldiers, are likely to develop full PTSD. Among them, between 1,500 and 20,000 are from combat and support units.
The psychological impact has also been evident in medication trends: the report documented a 70% rise in opioid prescriptions and a 132% increase in the use of sleep aids among displaced women. Substance abuse and dependency rates surged particularly among evacuees and those in prolonged exposure zones, such as the Gaza envelope and the northern border.
From a mental health perspective, there are going to be large numbers, all sorts of difficulties, but I suspect we haven’t seen the most severe consequences yet
Professor Yair Bar-Haim, Director of the National Center for Traumatic Stress and Resilience at Tel Aviv University, emphasized the structural and emotional magnitude of the challenge. Speaking with The Media Line, he said, “We will have to confront very difficult consequences of the war. From a mental health perspective, there are going to be large numbers, all sorts of difficulties. But I suspect we haven’t seen the most severe consequences yet.” For Bar-Haim, the ongoing nature of the war is exacerbating the risk: “If you are not even released when you finish your mandatory service, and are immediately called back up … and this is not ending … this puts a lot of pressure on people.”
Despite the grim statistics, IDF officials insist that there are structured mechanisms in place to prevent suicide and trauma escalation. Every combat unit has a mental health officer, known as a “kaban,” typically a clinical psychologist or social worker trained to identify risk and respond quickly. “When a unit meets a serious event, the commander and the mental health officer conduct a modified debriefing,” said Fruchter. “This is not the past ‘psychological debriefing’ model, which was found to be harmful, but rather a safer version that includes psychoeducation and access to therapy.”
One of the key tools in use is a program now known as “Ya’alom,” which every soldier learns before deployment. “It’s actually an early secondary intervention … like a mental tourniquet in order to bring him to a position in which he can cope instead of freeze,” he explained.
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Yet the safety net weakens significantly once soldiers return home. “If they are in therapy, of course they get follow-up,” said Fruchter. “But if they did not go into therapy yet, they will not be followed. You can’t do a constant follow-up for everybody.”
Some of them say, ‘I’ve killed people, I’ve seen horrors. I don’t want to go back to work like nothing happened.’
Daniel Eitan, a clinical and educational psychologist who leads psychological support initiatives for reservists, has witnessed the system’s limitations firsthand. “They return home without a uniform, without command, without salary, without a clear role, and with a lot of emotional confusion,” he told The Media Line. “Some of them say, ‘I’ve killed people, I’ve seen horrors. I don’t want to go back to work like nothing happened.”
That emotional confusion is something Shira, a reserve operations officer in the IDF and a volunteer with “Bishvil Hahayim,” an Israeli NGO supporting suicide prevention and bereaved families, knows intimately. She has spent the past two years working closely with reservists in distress after losing her own brother to suicide eight years ago. “We knew he wasn’t doing well, but we didn’t know he was doing that badly,” she told The Media Line. “If we had known he was in real pain, we would have done something. That’s the thin line. Everyone has hard moments. But this pain was deeper.”
They come home and isolate. They don’t want to meet people. They shut down. You see impatience, confusion, fatigue.
She described a recurring emotional pattern among soldiers returning from duty: exhaustion, emotional numbness, and a sense of lost meaning. “There’s this experience of losing vitality, of a lack of meaning,” Shira explained. “They come home and isolate. They don’t want to meet people. They shut down. You see impatience, confusion, fatigue.” For Shira, who also studies social work, these are classic signs of depression and suicidal ideation, yet they often go unnoticed, especially once reservists are no longer in uniform.
Eitan described how bureaucratic thresholds, such as the requirement to actively seek therapy, create blind spots in care. “The Health Ministry only counts those who enter formal therapy. But what about those suffering in silence, afraid of stigma, or simply too exhausted to seek help?”
Usually, we find out that people commit suicide in a delay. Not in the middle of the war, but after it ends.
Fruchter echoed the concern, highlighting that PTSD-related suicides often emerge only after conflict has ended. “Usually, we find out that people commit suicide in a delay. Not in the middle of the war, but after it ends,” he said, referencing patterns observed after major 20th-century wars. He added that organizations like ICAR are now trying to map those at risk, particularly outside of the formal military framework. “We’re trying to organize the different aspects of treatment of PTSD, not within the army, but where you see the cracks.”
Although media reports point to a numerical rise in suicides, at least 19 cases by mid-2025 compared to 14 in all of 2023, Fruchter offers a statistical caveat. “If you look at the amount per 10,000 people … there is no such rise. It’s the small numbers problem … when you have such small numbers and you say it’s three more … it looks like a huge wave, but it doesn’t necessarily say that.”
Imagine that your son comes back from Gaza after seeing things no one should see. But because he’s technically ‘a civilian again,’ he’s no longer the army’s responsibility, and not yet the health system’s either.
That framing, however, does not diminish the urgency felt by those on the ground. “Imagine that your son comes back from Gaza after seeing things no one should see,” said Eitan. “But because he’s technically ‘a civilian again,’ he’s no longer the army’s responsibility, and not yet the health system’s either.”
Shira agrees. “The real hardship begins when you return to routine, when you’re alone,” she said. “During the deployment, everyone is still together. There’s a shared fate. But afterwards, each person goes home and deals with it alone.” She added that while the army is improving its response, “years of neglect cannot be repaired in a few months.” She also emphasized that commanders, often reservists themselves, are struggling too. “We’re all pulled out of our lives and thrown into an unbearable routine. And there’s not enough follow-up afterwards.”
We have fewer than 1,000 psychiatrists in Israel, and about one-third of them are above retirement age.
Fruchter also pointed to a more systemic issue: Israel lacks the trained personnel to meet the growing mental health demands. “We have fewer than 1,000 psychiatrists in Israel,” he said. “And about one-third of them are above retirement age.” To make matters worse, the United Kingdom recently recruited 12 young Israeli psychiatrists to Bristol. “We truly missed these 12,” he admitted. “They were fully trained, board-certified, and they left.”
While health officials claim to have improved salaries and incentives, Fruchter remains critical. “They did not raise the number of people in residency. So the solution would not be even better in the future … the problems that would get a good solution today would be in the field in 12 years.”
A big change in the way they see life. Explosiveness. Use of drugs. Argumentative behavior. These are all warning signs.
Asked what signs families should watch for, Fruchter offered concrete advice. “A big change in the way they see life. Explosiveness. Use of drugs. Argumentative behavior. These are all warning signs.” He also shared a direct message to the families of lone soldiers, particularly those residing abroad, “Make sure your dear ones go to work even if they don’t want to. Go to see friends. Use friends even if they think that currently they don’t want to. And get away from the stigma … do anything to go back to normality.”
For Shira, her volunteer work with “Bishvil Hahayim” has been a way to transform personal pain into public responsibility. “It allowed me to speak without shame, and to realize how important it is to talk about suicide,” she said. “If we speak about it responsibly, we can reduce the chance that someone else will die.”
Bar-Haim offered a sobering assessment of what’s ahead. “We’re trying to gear up … but these are processes that take time. It’s a marathon, not a hundred-meter dash.”
Felice Friedson contributed to this report.
