Gaza is a far worse killing field than Iraq or Afghanistan, this is essentially a slaughter. No one ever asks what will become of the Gazans when this war ends. What do they go back to? They are all very damaged from this war. No country would want them. They have no assistance from anyone, and have experienced constant shock and horror.
SITRIA, Israel — Hours after Hamas assailants streamed from Gaza into Israel two years ago, Amir Lorch jumped in his car and sped to the site of the massacre, helping to gather the shattered bodies of his fellow Israelis.
He then deployed in late October 2023 as a reservist with the Israeli army to the central Gaza Strip and witnessed, he said, “what people are capable of in times of revenge, when no one sees you and the thing that comes out is something dark.”
It was when Lorch was discharged in December of that year and reclaimed his job as the head of artificial intelligence at a Tel Aviv start-up that the lows began, he recalled. Images of charred, mangled bodies stalked him in the marketplace and even in his apartment, where he could no longer sleep with his wife in the same bed. The honking of cars and rude strangers would set off bouts of rage that stretched weeks. He barely ate or slept. Soon, Lorch said, he was awaiting his next call-up, hoping to get killed in Gaza.
Two years into Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza, returning soldiers are confronting post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in numbers unprecedented for Israel, mental health professionals say. Since the start of the war, the longest in the country’s history, more than 11,000 soldiers have been admitted to the Defense Ministry’s psychological rehabilitation program for those who are war-wounded, according to a ministry statement.
Tens of thousands more are believed to have PTSD without recognition or treatment.
So much about Israel’s war in Gaza is exceptionally devastating.
The conflict was triggered by the attack on southern Israel, when Hamas-led forces killed about 1,200 people and took another 251 back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel’s invasion of Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians but says most of the victims are women and children. Casualties on both sides would certainly increase further if negotiations in coming days over President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan fail to stop the fighting and the Israeli military resumes its invasion of Gaza City.
The Israeli military is scrambling to respond to the resulting spike in PTSD.
It is deploying, for the first time, therapists to Gaza; expanding training for combat soldiers in psychological first aid under fire; and operating suicide hotlines. The military system is overburdened, so a wave of civilian initiatives has also emerged to pick up the slack.
With such a high proportion of Israelis serving in the military, many in this small country know someone suffering from PTSD.
But researchers warn that many clinicians who lack expertise in PTSD are missing the signs, leaving tens of thousands of soldiers to suffer untreated.
WaPo
SITRIA, Israel — Hours after Hamas assailants streamed from Gaza into Israel two years ago, Amir Lorch jumped in his car and sped to the site of the massacre, helping to gather the shattered bodies of his fellow Israelis.
He then deployed in late October 2023 as a reservist with the Israeli army to the central Gaza Strip and witnessed, he said, “what people are capable of in times of revenge, when no one sees you and the thing that comes out is something dark.”
It was when Lorch was discharged in December of that year and reclaimed his job as the head of artificial intelligence at a Tel Aviv start-up that the lows began, he recalled. Images of charred, mangled bodies stalked him in the marketplace and even in his apartment, where he could no longer sleep with his wife in the same bed. The honking of cars and rude strangers would set off bouts of rage that stretched weeks. He barely ate or slept. Soon, Lorch said, he was awaiting his next call-up, hoping to get killed in Gaza.
Two years into Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza, returning soldiers are confronting post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in numbers unprecedented for Israel, mental health professionals say. Since the start of the war, the longest in the country’s history, more than 11,000 soldiers have been admitted to the Defense Ministry’s psychological rehabilitation program for those who are war-wounded, according to a ministry statement.
Tens of thousands more are believed to have PTSD without recognition or treatment.
So much about Israel’s war in Gaza is exceptionally devastating.
The conflict was triggered by the attack on southern Israel, when Hamas-led forces killed about 1,200 people and took another 251 back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel’s invasion of Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians but says most of the victims are women and children. Casualties on both sides would certainly increase further if negotiations in coming days over President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan fail to stop the fighting and the Israeli military resumes its invasion of Gaza City.
The Israeli military is scrambling to respond to the resulting spike in PTSD.
It is deploying, for the first time, therapists to Gaza; expanding training for combat soldiers in psychological first aid under fire; and operating suicide hotlines. The military system is overburdened, so a wave of civilian initiatives has also emerged to pick up the slack.
With such a high proportion of Israelis serving in the military, many in this small country know someone suffering from PTSD.
But researchers warn that many clinicians who lack expertise in PTSD are missing the signs, leaving tens of thousands of soldiers to suffer untreated.
WaPo
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