1,600 Israel soldiers suffer shell-shock symptoms from Gaza war: Report

At least 1,600 Israeli soldiers have developed shell-shock symptoms since Israel expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on 27 October, according to local media on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Data obtained by the Walla news website showed that 76 per cent of these soldiers returned to the battlefield after initial treatment in the field.

Nearly 1,000 soldiers, however, did not improve and required further rehabilitation at military centres, data showed.

Some 250 Israeli soldiers were discharged from service as they continued to suffer shell-shock symptoms from the war, Walla said.

According to the news portal, around 3,475 injured soldiers have been treated at the army’s rehabilitation centre since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on 7 October.

Israel has launched air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, on 7 October.

At least 22,185 Palestinians have since been killed and 57,035 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.

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