Israeli Radio reported that a soldier committed suicide after receiving an order to return to military service in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that 10 officers and soldiers of the occupation have committed suicide since the seventh of last October, a number of whom committed suicide during the battles in the settlements surrounding Gaza.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – also announced that it had rescued an Israeli prisoner from a suicide attempt where he was captured in the Gaza Strip.
In mid-March, the Israeli army acknowledged that it has been facing the biggest mental health problem since 1973, against the backdrop of the war that the Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip have been waging with the occupation army since the Al-Aqsa flood.
Last month, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that an internal poll in the Israeli army showed that only 42% of officers in permanent military service wanted to continue serving after the end of the war on Gaza, compared to 49% recorded in August last year.
In a related context, reports from Israel stated that the army reserve forces are suffering from a severe shortage of soldiers as the war enters its ninth month, and the Israeli army has begun searching for volunteers to fight in Gaza.
The Israeli army acknowledged that the number of wounded soldiers since the beginning of the war on the 7th of last October reached 3,763, of whom 1,902 were wounded since the beginning of the ground battles on the 27th of the same month.
The number of dead in the occupation army has reached 646 soldiers and officers since the beginning of the war, including 294 killed in ground battles in the Gaza Strip. However, Israeli hospitals and media have confirmed that the actual number of dead and injured in the army is greater than what is announced.
