Israeli Defense Forces Mental Health Crisis Deepens

ACTIVISM, 3 Aug 2026

Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright | Popular Resistance – TRANSCEND Media Service

29 Jul 2026 – Two Female Israeli Soldiers Die by Suicide in the Past Two Days – Israeli High School Seniors Continue to Go to Prison Instead of Into the Israeli Military

According to a July 29, 2026 article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, two women Israeli soldiers have died by suicide in the past two days.

The Israeli military that has conducted the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the destruction of the infrastructure of Gaza, the ethnic cleansing and destruction of homes, farms and thousands of year-old olive orchards in West Bank, imprisoned 10,000 Palestinians, including many children, and the destruction of southern Lebanon, as well as the attack on Iran, continues to show the effects of its inhumane and criminal actions on its soldiers.

The mental health crisis within the Israeli military has increased as the effects of the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank are becoming known to the wider Israeli public despite an Israeli government and media blackout coverage in Israel of the genocide of Gaza.

U.S. Veterans Also Show Effects of Their Criminal Actions

As with U.S. military returning from killing over the decades in other countries, Israeli military personnel seldom discuss with their families what they have done and seen in Gaza and West Bank. The number of domestic violence reports in military families have increased, as they have done in U.S. military families.

According to the Veterans Administration’s most recent National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report (2024), an average of 17 veterans die by suicide every day.

An Operation Deep Dive report by America’s Warrior Partnership (AWP) reveals that veteran suicides are underreported, suggesting that as many as 24 veterans die by suicide per day with an additional 20 dying by “self-injury mortality,” often drug overdoses, bringing the total to 44 veterans who die by suicide per day, about 2.4 times more than the VA’s estimate.

According to the Disabled Veterans report “Women Veterans: The Journy to Mental Wellness,”  the suicide rate among women U.S. veterans is 92% higher than that of non-veteran women. For male U.S. veterans, the rate is almost 60% higher.

Post-traumatic stress (PTS) remains a leading factor in veteran suicide. Among veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 15% experience PTS symptoms in any given year, and about a third are estimated to face PTS at some point in their lifetime.

Israeli Military Suicide Statistics

According to the Haaretz article, in the past six months, since the beginning of 2026, at least 16 active-duty Israeli soldiers have died by suicide.

At least nine additional soldiers who served during the Israeli genocide of Gaza, both in regular service and the reserves, died by suicide in 2026 after completing their active service. The rise in the number of suicides within Israel’s defense establishment continues a trend that began after October 7, 2023.

In the decade prior to 2023, the average number of military suicides was 12 per year. Since then, the number of suicides has risen.

According to military data, from October 7, 2023, through the end of 2023, seven active-duty soldiers died by suicide.

In 2024, 21 Israeli soldiers died by suicide.

In 2025, 22 Israeli soldiers died by suicide, the highest figure in 15 years.

Israeli High School Graduates Save Their Souls By Refusing to Go to the Military…and to Prison Instead

On June 19, 2026, the last day of the 2026 school year in Israel, a letter from 120 high school graduating seniors announced their refusal to enlist in the Israeli military [TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS]. The letter, which specifically cites the” genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes in Gaza,” is titled “We refuse!”

With few exceptions, all women and men high school graduates have to serve in the Israeli military following graduation.

Yet, each year some young high school seniors, old beyond their years, youth of conscience, choose prison over military service.

Full text of the letter “We Refuse!”  [TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS]

We, teenagers slated for conscription in the Israeli Army, hereby refuse to take part in its crimes and to serve the dictatorial government’s interests.

We were all raised on the myth that Israel acts only in self-defense. The education system terrifies us from a young age, making us believe there is “no choice” and that we must forever live by our swords. Our schools prepare us for the army by instilling a militaristic worldview. Preparing for military tests and conversations with soldiers are a daily part of our high school lives. But the truth is, joining the army isn’t inevitable. Nobody’s born a soldier. And like any other choice, joining the army has its repercussions.

Over the past two and a half years, we have been subjected, through social media platforms and the news, to difficult and violent content from October 7th. But what began as a response to that terrible massacre has developed into a cruel campaign of extermination of the people of Gaza, of incomprehensible scale. And what are the results of the army’s actions? According to data the IDF accepts, more than 72,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the beginning of the war, many of them women, children, and even babies. And despite the so-called “ceasefire,” the genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes still continue.

Recently, we witnessed a sharp rise in violence by both settlers and the army throughout the West Bank. This isn’t a new phenomenon. For decades, Israel has used the army to oppress the Palestinian people, annex territories, and commit violence against Palestinians living in the West Bank – all as part of the country’s project of ethnic cleansing. The army attacks, kills, and arrests people without trial, including kids our age. The only thing that differentiates us is that they were born on the wrong side of the line.

Think: are these the actions of a “defense force”?

The endless wars take a heavy toll on us all: they inflict physical and mental wounds that will last for the rest of our lives. We are living between runs to the bomb shelters and announcements of fallen soldiers.

Are you willing to become part of the statistics?

Are you ready to make such a sacrifice in the name of a cynical, dictatorial government that trades in human lives to strengthen its rule?

What about you?

2001 Letter From Israeli Students Refusing Military Induction

The 2026 letter is not the first public challenge of students to Israel’s mandatory military service. In January 2001, 60 Israeli teenagers published an open letter  addressed to top Israeli officials, in which they declared their refusal to serve in the army in protest of its policies of occupation and apartheid.

The “Shministim Letter,” (Shministim is a Hebrew nickname given to high school seniors) challenged Israel’s military control of Palestinians in the occupied territories, describing Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem as an “apartheid” system entailing “two different systems of law; one for Palestinians and another for Jews.”  Some of those who signed the letter and ended up in prison are written about here.

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Ann Wright is a 29-year US Army/Army Reserves veteran, a retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone. She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Wright was also a passenger on the Challenger 1, which along with the Mavi Marmara, was part of the Gaza flotilla. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book Dissent: Voices of Conscience. She has written frequently on rape in the military.

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