New studies suggest Israeli public faces PTSD risk due to war

All reservists who have been released from duty have been participating in army-mandated therapy sessions.

By Troy O. Fritzhand, The Algemeiner

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the ongoing war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza, according to a new study.

The study — conducted in partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Columbia University, the Shalvata Mental Health Center, and the Effective Altruism Institute — said that 11,021 soldiers, 12,366 people who witnessed terrorism, 304,556 others who live in communities near the Gaza border, and 109,249 individuals throughout the rest of the country are likely to develop PTSD.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has already been taking active steps to prevent PTSD among its forces.

For example, all reservists who have been released from duty have been participating in army-mandated therapy sessions, or are scheduled to do so.

These sessions are required even for soldiers who did not go directly into battle.

According to three Israeli soldiers who spoke with The Algemeiner, though they felt they and their unit members did not need the sessions, they found them extremely helpful.

One of the soldiers described how during the session, which is held in group settings with specific units, a 37-year-old father broke down about the emotional toll the war has enacted on him being away from his family.

This specific unit has been stationed on the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces have exchanged fire with the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah.

While the unit has not had any direct combat, it has nonetheless been in battle-preparation mode for over five months.

To help these soldiers, the IDF also opened a new mental health center at the army’s Tel HaShomer base in February specifically geared for soldiers leaving Gaza.

Per IDF numbers at the time of the opening, more than 30,000 reservists had met with mental health professionals, with 202 soldiers being released from service due to mental health issues discovered and an additional 1,700 referred for advanced screening and treatment.

“From the first moment of the war, mental health was present in the torture from the field to the home front,” Lt. Col. Elon Glazberg, the chief medical officer of the IDF Medical Corps, said in a statement during the opening of the facility.

“In light of the great importance of the issue, we chose it as one of the main axes of focus these days — and we are now working to expand it.”

The war has already taken an emotional toll on the citizens of Israel, with a leading psychologist group saying every Israeli was in a state of trauma.

As the name indicates, PTDS can only occur after a traumatic experience, and the war against Hamas in Gaza is ongoing.

The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists stormed southern Israel under the cover of thousands of rockets fired at cities throughout the country, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages to Gaza.

Mounting evidence has revealed the Palestinian terror group carried out systematic rapes and mutilations of men, women, children, and the elderly during the onslaught.

In Israel, a small country roughly the size of the US state of New Jersey, almost everyone knows somebody who was killed — or has a friend or family member who knows someone who was killed — in the Oct. 7 atrocities.

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