The war didn’t end for Daniel Edri when he left the battlefield. Nor did it end for Eliran Mizrahi or Igor Pivnev. For them, like so many others, the battlefield followed them home.
Over the past weekend, Edri, who was only 24 and had his whole life in front of him, took his own life in a forest near Safed. He had been struggling with severe mental-health issues as he tried to cope with the pain, images, and smells that haunted him from his experiences in Lebanon and Gaza. In addition to the traumatic images, Edri was also devastated by the murder of two childhood friends at the Supernova music festival.
His mother, Sigal, recounted the torment he suffered. “He told me he saw horrors and said, ‘Mom, I can’t stop smelling the bodies, and I see the bodies all the time,’” she said.
Edri begged for psychiatric hospitalization just days before he died and was told to wait. He ran out of time.
His death, unfortunately, is not an isolated tragedy. It’s a symptom of a deeper, national illness – one that our country continues to ignore. According to January 2024 figures, just a few months after the war began, at least 1,600 IDF soldiers had begun showing signs of combat-related PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Yet 76% were sent back to combat after receiving what’s described as “treatment in the field.” And the suicides continue.
Eliran Mizrahi, a father of four, returned home from Gaza but was never the same. He became withdrawn, angry, and unable to sleep. Days before he was to be redeployed, he took his own life. “He got out of Gaza, but Gaza didn’t get out of him,” said his mother, Jenny.
A Tel Aviv University study in June 2024 found that 12% of reserve soldiers returning from Gaza reported PTSD symptoms. And it’s not just the soldiers.
Following the October 7 massacre and subsequent Israel-Hamas War, about three million adults in Israel have exhibited signs of anxiety, depression, or PTSD, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman reported in February. His report was a critical assessment of Israel’s mental-health infrastructure. It means about one-third of the adults are suffering.
Englman described how the already strained mental-health system collapsed in the days following the October 7 massacre.
Despite widespread suffering, only a tiny fraction of Israelis received professional support in the months that followed. “I issued a warning to the prime minister about shortcomings in mental healthcare roughly a month after October 7, yet many of these issues remain unresolved,” he wrote in the report.
About 580,000 Israelis are currently experiencing at least one severe PTSD symptom linked directly to the October 7 massacre and its aftermath, the report estimated.
And yet, survivors say they feel abandoned, citing underfunded clinics, endless bureaucratic delays, and an overwhelmed mental health system. “No one cared for us before, and no one is doing it now,” Avichai Levy, an IDF veteran struggling with PTSD and financial ruin, told a Knesset committee in June 2024. “The ministers ignore us.”
Our society is losing its war on mental health, and this is a war, like that against Hamas, that will impact the future of the country.
The IDF says it is doing what it can, but some soldiers are now on their fifth tour in Gaza. Families are strained. Spouses are carrying the burden of keeping homes afloat. Children are growing up in the shadow of war.
During June’s conflict with Iran, the Health Ministry reported receiving more than 4,700 calls to emotional-support hotlines a few days after the war began.
In response to rising mental distress, the Health Ministry has expanded access to support hotlines and is integrating mental-health services into general hospitals to provide more unified care.
But more must be done. Mental trauma must be acknowledged as real, debilitating, and just as worthy of national support as any battlefield injury.
We owe it to those who served, those who have fallen, their children, and those who feel like they can no longer go on living – the future Edris, Mizrahis, and Pivnevs. Israel does not have a choice; it must win the mental-health war.