Israel’s Shame: IDF Soldiers Are Killing Themselves, and the Media’s Covering It Up

The Israel Defense Forces are bleeding out, not just from bullets in Gaza or rockets from Lebanon, but from a gut-wrenching suicide crisis that’s ripping through its ranks.

Since October 7, 2023, at least 38 soldiers have blown their brains out or put a bullet through their hearts, crushed by the unrelenting trauma of war. And what does Israel do? It buries the truth.

The media, either gagged or too spineless to speak, churns out pathetic euphemisms like “found lifeless” or “passed away.” Lifeless? Nope, sorry. These soldiers shot themselves, hanged themselves, ended it all with their own IDF rifles.

That's so sad, we say. It's time we stopped spewing garbage and faced the fact that it's a national disgrace, and the silence is complicity in their deaths.

The numbers scream what the headlines won’t. IDF data from January 2025 admits to 28 suicides since the Hamas massacre, with 21 in 2024 alone, a sickening jump from 14 in 2022 and 11 in 2021.

Reservists, yanked from their lives to serve in hellholes like Rafah, are breaking: 12 of last year’s suicides were theirs. Eliran Mizrahi, a father of four, shot himself in June 2024 after PTSD from clearing Nova festival bodies and facing another Gaza call-up. Asaf Dagan killed himself after three years of his mother, Miri, begging the IDF for help, only to be met with cold shoulders and contempt. These aren’t “incidents.” They’re an epidemic, fueled by a war that’s shredding souls as much as bodies. X users are livid, one posting, “They say ‘lifeless’ like he just dropped dead. He shot himself in the head. Stop hiding it!”

The media’s cowardice is infuriating. Instead of screaming “suicide,” they whisper vague nonsense, shielding the IDF’s image while soldiers’ blood stains their keyboards.

A 2015 study flagged easy access to firearms as a suicide catalyst, 38% of cases happen in the first six months, when recruits are drowning in stress. Yet, reports rarely mention the guns, let alone demand change.

Insiders say the pressure’s on, whether from military brass or a society terrified of tarnishing its warrior myth, to whitewash the truth. A rare Yedioth Ahronoth piece in November 2024 dared mention six suicides, but even then, it tiptoed around “suicide” like it’s a dirty word. On X, the outrage is palpable: “The media’s lying. These boys are killing themselves, and we’re pretending it’s nothing.”

This is stigma, sure, but more than that, it’s actaully betrayal. Israel demands its youth serve, then abandons them when the nightmares come. The IDF’s mental health efforts are a sick joke: a helpline with 3,900 calls since 2023 and 800 reservist therapists sound nice, but they didn’t save Mizrahi, Dagan, or dozens others.

Miri Dagan’s pleas, hundreds of calls to the IDF, Knesset, anyone, were ignored, her son left to die of heartbreak. When Mizrahi took his life, the IDF had the gall to deny him a military burial, claiming he wasn’t “active.” Families are fighting for scraps of dignity while the system spits in their faces. A CNN piece last October dared touch soldiers’ trauma but got slammed.

The cover-up isn’t new, but it’s never been this blatant. In 2013, Haaretz exposed the IDF’s secrecy on suicides, noting 37% of cases from 2007-2013 were immigrants, crushed by unique pressures. A 2012 Times of Israel report called suicide the IDF’s top killer, but the military stonewalled on details. Now, with 2024’s spike, 10 suicides by May alone, per Haaretz, the IDF still calls the rate “stable.” Stable? What if it were your kid? The truth breaks through: “The army hides the numbers, the media buries the story. We’re losing our kids, and no one cares.”

And if that wasn't bad enough, there are many soldiers who are too scared to admit the truth to their commanders, because they will be kicked out of their units. These are young men and women suffering endless torment, while carrying around enough ammo to take out a bunch of people. A recipe for disaster.

This is a national crime. Soldiers like Sapir Sluzker-Amran, who survived a 2017 attempt, say commanders sweep cries for help under the rug to protect their own records. Guns stay in the hands of kids barely out of high school, despite data showing suicides peak early in service. The IDF’s half-assed reforms, helplines, therapists, aren’t enough when the system treats mental health like a PR problem. And the media are not so quiet accomplices, choosing fluffy phrases over the raw horror of a soldier pulling the trigger because he can’t live with what he’s seen.

Israel, wake the hell up. These aren’t “lifeless” bodies: they’re your sons, your brothers, driven to despair by a war that breaks minds as easily as bones. The IDF must gut its mental health system, lock up guns for at-risk soldiers, and stop treating PTSD like a personal failure.

The media needs to grow a spine, call a suicide a suicide, and expose the war’s moral toll without flinching. Stop the lies. Scream the truth. Or this blood is on all our hands.