Israel’s Hebrew-language magazine Ha-makom, oriented toward the ultra-Orthodox Jews, initiated a series on the collapse of morale in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), leading to a refusal by combat soldiers to deploy any longer. In a machine translation, it states: “From Nahal to the commando brigade, from Givati to the paratroopers—more and more fighters, from all infantry units, testify that” they have “no choice but to refuse” to deploy. In September, only six out of the thirty soldiers in the Nahal Brigade showed up. One parent of a soldier in Nahal reported that, according to her son: “The wards are empty. Everyone who is not dead or injured is mentally damaged. There are very few left who returned to fight. And they’re not quite right either.”
Ha-makom interviewed over 20 fighters and parents. Soldiers feel demoralized having to return to places in Gaza where they fought months ago and supposedly defeated Hamas. Eidit, a parent, described: “When they return to the places they were in, such as Jabalia, Al-Zaytoun, and Shujaiya, began, it broke the soldiers. These are the same places where they lost their friends. The area was already clean…. It frustrated them a lot.... You never know when you will get out, and it’s been like this for a year. Not to mention the loss and the difficult sights they see in Gaza.”
