Gaza Herald — Official data released by the Israeli army reveal a dramatic surge in suicide cases among Israeli soldiers since the launch of the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, a spike military experts link directly to intensifying psychological pressure and the brutal fighting on the ground.
According to the figures, seven active-duty soldiers took their own lives between October 7 and the end of 2023. In 2024, the army recorded 21 suicides among its ranks. Since the beginning of 2025 until today, at least 20 additional soldiers have died by suicide.
Before the war, the annual average stood at around 12 cases, meaning the rate has nearly doubled over the past two years.
The Israeli military attributes the rise to the massive expansion of troop deployment, including reservists, as well as the exposure of many soldiers to intense combat inside Gaza. Military sources say internal assessments indicate a decline in suicides related solely to personal issues, alongside a sharp increase in cases believed to stem from battlefield trauma and psychological shock.
On Thursday, Haaretz reported the suicide of a Givati Brigade reservist officer who had been struggling with severe trauma after taking part in Israel’s war of extermination against Gaza.
According to the report, 28-year-old soldier Thomas Edzgauzks was discharged from service in 2024 due to psychological injury and had been undergoing procedures to recognize him as suffering from post-combat trauma. His body was found in a public park in Ashdod, alongside a note that read:
“I can’t go on. I have done unforgivable things. A demon has been chasing me since October 7. Please forget me.”
Haaretz noted that he had been suffering from psychological distress for nearly two years and was receiving psychotherapy and medication.
Specialists warn that Edzgauzks’s case is not an isolated incident but part of a rapidly expanding pattern of psychological collapse among soldiers who participated in the Gaza campaign, as operations grind on and moral and battlefield pressures intensify.
Families of former soldiers and mental health professionals continue to warn that official numbers do not reflect the full reality. Organizations working with post-trauma patients estimate that the true number of suicides is significantly higher, especially among discharged soldiers whose deaths are not counted in official army statistics.
According to Haaretz, at least 15 discharged soldiers have taken their own lives since the start of the war due to service-related trauma, along with five police officers during the same period. Many of these cases remain “in the shadows,” unacknowledged as war-related casualties.
Backed by the United States, Israel has waged a genocidal assault on Gaza since October 7, 2023, killing more than 70,000 Palestinians and injuring over 171,000, the vast majority of them women and children.
Although a ceasefire agreement was supposed to take effect on October 10 of this year, Israel continues to violate it daily, killing and wounding hundreds, while also preventing the entry of adequate food and medical supplies into Gaza.
