Following suicides, Israeli army reveals hundreds of soldiers traumatised by Gaza fighting

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers sought out the army’s mental health experts even as fighting raged in Gaza, officials have revealed. According to a report in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the military’s Medical Corpsposted officers from the mental health department at the staging area for combat soldiers, with hundreds attending hours of therapy “after showing signs of shell shock.

“Following ‘Operation Protective Edge’, the Medical Corps created an evaluation centre for soldiers who had fought in Gaza and had PTSD.

Defense Ministry statistics show that to date, 93 of the 463 applications for recognition as disable dsoldiers “also note symptoms linked to PTSD.”

At the end of September, it was revealed that three members of the Givati Brigadehad committed suicide over the course of the month – all of them had taken part in ground operations in Gaza.

Speaking to the Knesset’s IDF Personnel and Training Subcommittee, the army’s mental health department director Col. Keren Ginat described “three soldiers committing suicide after the operation” as a “significant event.”