Gaza genocide drives Israeli army's suicide rate to 15-year high: Report
A record number of Israeli soldiers were driven to suicide in 2025 after participating in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza
Twenty-two active duty Israeli soldiers committed suicide in 2025, the highest number in fifteen years, Haaretz reported on 2 January.
"Army officials warn that the upcoming 'post-war' year will be challenging for the mental health of military personnel," the Israeli daily wrote.
Israeli soldiers have spent the past two years committing war crimes against civilians in Gaza, encouraged by calls from authorities, rabbis, and media figures to exterminate Palestinians in the strip.
In the latest case, a mandatory-service lone soldier from the Combat Engineering Corps killed himself in southern Israel on Wednesday.
The number of suicides last year was the highest since 2010, when 28 soldiers killed themselves in the wake of Israel's genocide in Gaza that year, officially known as Operation Cast Lead.
According to Israeli military data, 12 soldiers who committed suicide in 2025 were conscripts, nine were reservists, and one was a career soldier.
Eight of the soldiers killed themselves while at military bases. Five of the soldiers were being monitored by mental health officers, including a senior drone operator who killed himself after saying he could no longer bear the effects of combat," Haaretz wrote.
In September, foreign doctors who returned home after volunteering in Gaza said they had regularly treated Palestinian children targeted in the head or chest by Israeli troops in the strip.
Forensic pathologists consulted by Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reviewed X-rays and confirmed the wounds were consistent with long-range sniper or drone fire, not shrapnel from explosions.
"This is not collateral damage. It is intentional," said former Dutch army commander Mart de Kruif.
According to military sources speaking with Haaretz, "many of those who died by suicide had been exposed to severe combat scenes and incidents that likely affected their mental health."
The Israeli military data does not include soldiers who died by suicide after leaving active service. An additional 15 former soldiers who participated in the genocide took their own lives in 2025, but after their combat tours had ended.
Soldiers who commit suicide outside of active duty are not considered "fallen soldiers" and are denied a military funeral in which an army commander would deliver a eulogy and place a special wreath on the grave.