16 Israeli soldiers committed suicide last year

Israeli security forces in the West Bank on 20 July 2017 [Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency]

The Israel Defence Forces have revealed that 2017 witnessed the highest number of suicides among its soldiers since 2011, Al-Resalah reported on Wednesday. A spokesman for the IDF said that 16 soldiers killed themselves last year.

According to the Head of the Manpower Planning and Administration Division in the IDF, Colonel Merav Kirshner, “Most of the suicides are soldiers in their first year of compulsory service, not during initial enlistment and preparation, but later during the first year of service.”

The first suicide of an Israeli soldier in 2018 occurred overnight on Wednesday. According to the Jerusalem Post, the soldier killed himself with his own gun at his base.

Read: Eight Israeli soldiers commit suicide in nearly three months

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