JERUSALEM 

Nearly 3,000 regular and reserve soldiers have been examined by mental health officers since the beginning of the war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli army data revealed on Friday. 

Yekhiel Levechitz, the head of the clinical department for mental illnesses in the Israeli army, told the Israeli Broadcasting Authority: “Since Oct. 7, thousands of soldiers, about 3,000 regular and reserve soldiers, have been examined by mental health officers in the Israeli army deployed in all sectors.”

She added that “more than 2,000 individuals have been treated by the combat response teams on the ground near the combat zone,” while others received treatment in units inside Israel.

Levechitz pointed out: “Over a thousand regular and reserve soldiers showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress and were transferred to the intensive care unit at the Tzrifin military base (central Israel).”

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, killing at least 27,131 Palestinians and injuring 66,287. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala