الانتحار يتزايد في صفوف جنود الاحتلال الإسرائيلي بغزة

Israeli media revealed today (Sunday) that soldiers of the Israeli occupation army have begun to complain about a shortage of troops and being assigned tasks that are not part of their training.

Channel 12 reported that there are soldiers in elite forces complaining about being assigned tasks that do not align with their training, noting that soldiers in elite units such as commandos and Maglan have been tasked with infantry missions.

It pointed out that elite forces are carrying out infantry unit missions due to the shortage after the death and injury of about 10,000 soldiers, indicating that soldiers are complaining about being assigned military activities that sometimes last for 12 consecutive hours.

This comes at a time when the occupation army has witnessed an unprecedented rise in cases of suicide and psychological crises among its soldiers since the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023. A new suicide case was recorded this week after a fighter from the "Golani" Brigade took his own life at a military base in the south of the occupied territories.

Reports indicated that the soldier had left the Gaza Strip to return to the Sde Teiman base, where military police investigators were waiting to interrogate him as part of an investigation that was opened about a month ago. After undergoing the interrogation, his commanders decided to confiscate his personal weapon; however, he seized a weapon from one of his sleeping colleagues and shot himself, leaving a suicide note.

Media reports stated that more than 21 suicide cases were recorded last year, while 17 soldiers committed suicide in 2023. However, since the beginning of 2025, about 14 new suicide cases have been recorded.

Tom Levinson, a journalist for the "Haaretz" newspaper covering community affairs, reported that the alarming figures recently recorded reflect a clear increase in suicide rates among Israeli army personnel since the start of the war on Gaza, raising serious questions about the immense psychological pressures faced by soldiers under difficult security and living conditions.

He noted that the military institution attributes this rise to widespread mobilization, especially among reserve forces, as hundreds of thousands have served for long months in complex combat fronts, indicating that a significant percentage of suicide cases have been recorded among active-duty soldiers, reflecting the psychological burden that accompanies daily military missions.

In contrast, the Al-Qassam Brigades stated that they targeted an Israeli tank yesterday east of the Zeitoun neighborhood south of Gaza City, and that they observed the landing of evacuation helicopters.