An IDF officer, 28-year-old Captain Yosef-Haim Ashraf, committed suicide yesterday. He was a combat officer in the assault upon Gaza. Active duty suicides in Israel have gone up 50% this year, from 28 in the 15 months before 2025, to 21 more in the last 7.5 months. And one-third of this year’s total all took place last month.
Haaretz reports that, “according to military sources, internal data show a decline in suicides stemming from purely personal circumstances unrelated to combat. This suggests that a significant number of the cases involved soldiers who were exposed to traumatic combat experiences that likely contributed to their mental distress.”
