🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 384, 2023 - October 24, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 384 that 101 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**

“I’ve never met them,

But I miss them. 

I’ve never met them,

but I think of them every second. 

I’ve never met them,

but they are my family. 

BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”

"Ok sweet boy, go on your journey because finally you are free..." - Rachel Goldberg

Tragic loss of such a sweet soul. The world mourns with the entire Goldberg Polin family. May Hersh's memory be a Revolution!

(picture taken when Hersh (far left), and his family, lived in Richmond, VA)

We’re waiting for you, all of you.
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.

#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

 The two sections at the end, personal stories and Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages are very important to read, as important or more than the news of the day.

Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements

*7:15pm yesterday - north -  rockets/missiles

*8:00pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*8:35pm yesterday - center - rockets/missiles - HOd Hasharon, Kfar Saba, Ramat Gan, Ramat Hasharon, Beit Berl, Gan Haim, Kfar Malal, Ganei Tikva, Sde Warburg, Glil Yam, Maas, Savyon, Petach Tikvah, Kiryat Ono, Ganot, Batzra, Bnei Brak, Givagt Chen, Givataim, Givagt Shmuel, Rosh Haayin, Kfar Kassem, Alfei Menashe, Elkana, Gaash, Yakum, Wingate Institute, Glilot, Netanya, Odem, Nir Eliyahu, Kfar Shmaryahu, Zur Yigal, Ramat Hacovesh
*11:05pm yesterday - north - hostile aircraft - Admit, Yaara

Some 135 rockets were launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah at Israel today, according to the IDF. The rocket attacks mostly targeted northern Israel. At least six rockets were fired at central Israel today, including a barrage of four this evening.

*12:15am - north - rockets/missiles
*2:45am - north - rockets/missiles
*9:20am - north -rockets/missiles
*9:50am - north -rockets/missiles
*10:50am - north - rockets/missiles
*11:30am - north - rockets/missiles
*11:55am - north - rockets/missiles
*12:15pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:30pm - north - rockets/missiles - Hezbollah has fired some 120 rockets at northern Israel today so far, according to an IDF tally.

At least four people were wounded in the Western Galilee in one of the attacks earlier today.

*4:05pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:40pm - north - hostile aircraft
*4:45pm - north - hostile aircraft
*4:50pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:55pm - north - rockets/missiles
*5:00pm - north - rockets/missiles
*5:25pm - north - hostile aircraft

Hostage Updates 

• I have read the Wall Street Journal article that claims that Sinwar ordered to refuse any ceasefire deals because, as the newspaper claimed, Israel would offer more concessions later. The article offers zero evidence, other than "Arab mediators said...." and a lot of conjecture and speeches and writings of Sinwar from long ago.  Frankly, I don't believe anyone or any news source that does not provide real evidence. Everyone lies and the "craft of the trade" of trying to understand reality and the truth is by asking: who is saying what, when, and why are they saying that?  If you can answer those questions, it is a little bit easier to determine what is true and what is a spin.  From my many years of negotiating this conflict and specifically with Hamas, I have learned that just about everything that is said that we hear is part of the information, misinformation and disinformation which are part and parcel of the negotiations themselves.  So read and listen with great caution and don't accept anything that anyone says as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - because it most likely is not. (Gershon Baskin, October 23, 2024)
  
  
• Photo: Kfir Bibas held in sukkah shortly before kidnapping on October 7

  
  Kfir Bibas is held in a sukkah in Kibbutz Nir Oz in October 2023. 

  
  

  Channel 12 publishes photos of some of the October 7 victims as they celebrated Sukkot and Simhat Torah one year ago.

  One photo shows then-nine-month-old Kfir Bibas being held under the Kibbutz Nir Oz sukkah last year. Bibas was kidnapped with his four-year-old brother Ariel and parents Shiri and Yarden. All four remain in captivity.

  

  Yossi Sharabi celebrates Simchat Torah in Kibbutz Be’eri hours before he was kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught. (Screen capture/Channel 12)
  
  

  
  Ofer Calderon (top right) celebrates Sukkot with his family in Kibbutz Nir Oz in October 2023. (Courtesy)
  
  
  

  
  

  Uriel Baruch, who was killed in the Nova festival massacre, celebrates Sukkot with his family in October 2023. (Courtesy)

  
  

  
  

  L
  iri Elbag celebrates Sukkot with her family in October 2023. (Courtesy)
  
  

  
  Uriel Baruch, who was killed in the Nova festival massacre, celebrates Sukkot with his family in October 2023. (Courtesy)

• "Mossad Chief to arrive in Doha, Qatari PM alongside Blinken: 'The goal - to achieve a breakthrough'"
  
  
  The four-party forum will convene for the first time since the hostages' killing: With Netanyahu's approval, Barnea will fly to Doha on Sunday with an Israeli delegation, joined by the CIA Director and the new Egyptian intelligence chief. The Qatari PM says: "We held meetings with Hamas representatives."
  
  
  With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approval, Mossad chief David Barnea will fly this Sunday to a four-party summit in Doha, Qatar - the first time the forum has convened since late August, before six hostages were killed in a tunnel in Rafah.
  
  
  Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Qatar that he expects talks for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza to resume soon. Alongside him, Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mohammed Al-Thani, announced that Israeli and American teams will arrive in Doha in coming days. It was later revealed that a four-party summit would take place, aimed at achieving a "breakthrough" in talks.
  
  
  Blinken arrived in Qatar to finalize details about resuming talks, after presenting his plan during his visit to Israel. The summit will include an Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea, CIA Director William Burns, new Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, and Qatar's Prime Minister.
  
  
  According to Al-Thani, Qataris have recently held meetings with Hamas's political bureau members in Doha, though it's unclear how contacts will continue. Israel maintains cautious optimism about Hamas appointing a committee to replace Sinwar's role in negotiations, meaning decisions won't be made by a single leader anymore. However, it's uncertain whether Hamas, which demands an end to the war, will agree to return to talks. Israel believes Hamas may wait to see how developments unfold regarding Israel's strike on Iran and Iran's response.
  
  

  Blinken added that in his conversation with the Qatari PM, they discussed ways to leverage Sinwar's death to advance negotiations. Al-Thani said in a statement that "it's time for this painful period in the region to end," and added that he discussed with Blinken "a sustainable solution and the day after the war."

  
  

  Al-Thani was also asked at a press conference about the IDF's accusations - that several journalists at Qatar's Al Jazeera network served as Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives. "Al Jazeera must act if there is truth to Israel's accusations against its journalists," he said. "However, these accusations should be treated with skepticism." He added that "we are very proud of Al Jazeera as an institution and its war coverage. Al Jazeera operates according to the highest international standards of journalistic coverage. There is no justification for attacking journalists in conflict zones and the excuses for this are unacceptable." Blinken was also asked about this and said he cannot verify the Israeli claims.

  
  

  Today the IDF revealed new documents about cooperation between Al Jazeera and Hamas, which they say demonstrate the close connection between the terror organization and the Qatari network. Among other things, the documents show that the channel was forbidden from criticizing the terror organization. Additionally, Hamas instructed the network not to publish information about failed launches from Gaza - among other things through a secure communication line.

  
  

  Meanwhile, in Gaza Strip, 17 casualties were reported today in an IDF strike in a displaced persons area in Nuseirat camp. The IDF spokesperson stated this was a Hamas command and control compound, in a building that previously served as the "Shuhada al-Nuseirat" school. The strike was carried out by fighter jets, guided by Military Intelligence, Shin Bet, and the 252nd Division. According to the IDF, "The command and control compound was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute terror operations against IDF forces and the State of Israel."

  
  

  "The IDF is making maximum efforts to prevent harm to uninvolved civilians," it was further stated. "Many steps were taken before the strike to minimize the chance of civilian casualties. The Hamas terror organization systematically violates international law, cruelly exploiting civilian institutions and the population as human shields for terror operations. The IDF will continue to act with strength and determination against terror organizations." link

Gaza 

•  Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 42 people today as the IDF moved forward with its operations against Hamas insurgents in north Gaza, medics say.

  The Gaza health ministry and the World Health Organization says they would be unable to start a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza as planned because of the intense bombardments, mass displacements and lack of access.

  Israeli forces began the operation in the north about three weeks ago with the declared aim of preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping. The operation has intensified since the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar a week ago.

  The Israeli military announced last Friday it had sent another army unit to Jabaliya on the northern edge of Gaza. Residents say the troops have besieged shelters, forcing displaced people to leave while rounding up many of the men. The health ministry says at least 650 people had been killed since the new offensive began. Those numbers have not been verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

  Of at least 42 people reported killed by Israeli military strikes across the enclave on Wednesday, 37 deaths were in northern Gaza, Hamas-run health authorities say.

  Hours earlier, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said three of its rescuers were wounded in northern Gaza in what it said was a “targeted strike,” that aimed to force them out of Jabalia, hours after the Israeli army ordered some of their staff to leave the camp.

  The IDF did not comment on the strike but has long stressed that it does not target civilians.

• IDF releases more documents showing how Hamas instructed Al Jazeera to cover up failed rocket launches
  The IDF reveals additional documents indicating close cooperation between Hamas and Al Jazeera, including advising the Qatari channel not to criticize the Palestinian terror group, concealing incidents of failed rocket launches, and establishing a secure communication line between Hamas and Al Jazeera.
  A day after publicizing documents uncovered in the Gaza Strip that show that six active Al Jazeera reporters are operatives in Palestinian terror groups, the military releases a document from 2022 in which Hamas provides Al Jazeera with instructions on how to cover up a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch in Jabaliya in which several civilians were killed.
  The document instructs Al Jazeera not to use the word “massacre” to describe the incident, to display minimal images, and to make sure Hamas was not criticized in panel discussions.

  
  A 2022 document, released by the IDF on October 24, 2024, in which Hamas describes how it provided Al Jazeera with clear instructions on covering a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch in Jabaliya. (Israel Defense Forces)

  
  

  In another document released by the IDF today, also from 2022, Hamas instructed journalist Tamer Almisshall to support the “resistance” in his coverage of Palestinian Islamic Jihad during a 66-hour battle between Israel and the terror group, dubbed Operation Breaking Dawn.

  The document specifically instructed Al Jazeera not to criticize PIJ’s rocket capability or highlight its failed launches.

  The military also releases evidence of Hamas’s efforts in 2023 to establish a secure line between the terror group and the channel for classified information and emergencies.
  

  
  A 2023 document, released by the IDF on October 24, 2024, which shows Hamas efforts to set up a secure line with Al Jazeera in Qatar. (Israel Defense Forces)

  “The documents reveal how Hamas directs Al Jazeera’s media coverage to serve its own interests, preventing the public in Gaza and around the world from discovering the truth about its crimes against Gazan civilians,” the IDF says in a statement.

  Yesterday, the IDF released documents it said showed that Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif, Alaa Salameh, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf al-Sarraj, Ismail Abu Omar and Talal al-Arrouqi are operatives in the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.

  
  Al Jazeera journalists accused by the IDF of being members of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups, in a graphic released by the IDF on October 23, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• Some 135 rockets were launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah at Israel today, according to the IDF.

  The rocket attacks mostly targeted northern Israel. At least six rockets were fired at central Israel today, including a barrage of four this evening.

• Lebanese state media says four Israeli strikes destroyed a residential complex near Beirut’s southern suburb of Laylaki.

  “Israeli warplanes launched four very violent raids targeting a residential complex in the vicinity of Laylaki, completely destroying it and causing a large fire,” the official National News Agency says.

  Israel has been targeting Hezbollah sites throughout Beirut intensively throughout the past several weeks.

• An Israeli strike on Wednesday night destroyed an office used by the Hezbollah-linked, pro-Iran Al-Mayadeen broadcaster, a Lebanese security source tells Reuters. Two other security sources confirmed the office had been hit in an Israeli strike on a multi-story building.

• An Israeli airstrike targeting an office belonging to a Beirut-based TV station killed one person, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

  The ministry says five other people, including a child, were wounded in Wednesday’s strike. The child was seriously injured and admitted to the hospital.

  Pan-Arab TV channel Al-Mayadeen, which is politically allied with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, said its office in the area between Jnah and Ouzai on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs was targeted.

  “Al-Mayadeen holds the Israeli occupation accountable for the attack on a known media office for a known media outlet,” Al-Mayadeen TV said.

  The name of the person killed is unknown. Al Mayadeen said that the office had been evacuated. The Israeli army did not issue a warning before the strike.

• Lebanese state media says four Israeli strikes destroyed a residential complex near Beirut’s southern suburb of Laylaki.

  “Israeli warplanes launched four very violent raids targeting a residential complex in the vicinity of Laylaki, completely destroying it and causing a large fire,” the official National News Agency says.

  Israel has been targeting Hezbollah sites throughout Beirut intensively throughout the past several weeks.

• Hezbollah targets central and northern Israel, as IDF expands Lebanon strikes to Tyre

  Two long-range rockets intercepted as terror group says it targeted Glilot base near Tel Aviv; IDF strikes weapons caches in Beirut area, ground troops destroy tunnels near border

  
  Smoke rises by destroyed buildings from the site of an Israeli airstrike the previous day on the neighborhood of Mreijeh in Beirut's southern suburbs on October 23, 2024. (AFP)

  The Israel Defense Forces appeared to expand its strikes on Hezbollah to the Lebanese city of Tyre on Wednesday, Lebanon’s state media reported, as the Iran-backed terror group filed multiple volleys of rockets targeting central and northern Israel.

  “Four strikes targeted the city of Tyre after the enemy threatened to bomb it,” the National News Agency said, following earlier reporting that “an enemy drone targeted” a “street in Tyre.”

  Earlier in the day, Israel issued an urgent evacuation warning to residents of the city, ahead of airstrikes against Hezbollah sites.
  

  The warning, which covered a large portion of the city, was the first broad evacuation call issued for Tyre since the start of the war, compared to previous orders that were directed at specific buildings.

  Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, posted a map of the targeted areas on X, warning civilians: “Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act in the area you are in.

  “The IDF does not want to harm you. You must immediately move away from the area marked in red and head north to the Awali River. Anyone who is near Hezbollah personnel, facilities and weapons of Hezbollah is putting their life in danger!” Adraee wrote.
  

  The warning came after Israel struck several Hezbollah weapons manufacturing and storage sites the night before in Dahiyeh, the terror group’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut.

  The targeted sites were embedded in civilian buildings, and the IDF warned civilians who were near the buildings beforehand to evacuate.

  Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed three Hezbollah regional unit commanders in the past two days, the IDF said Wednesday, saying fighter jets took out the commanders of Hezbollah’s Jibchit, Jouaiyya and Qana areas.

  The commanders were responsible for rocket and missile fire on Israeli towns from their respective areas, the IDF said.

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

•     

Politics and the War (general news)

•  Palestinian terror group Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations on a national unity government for post-war Gaza, a senior Hamas official tells the RIA state news agency after talks in Moscow.

  Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow.

  “We discussed issues related to Palestinian national unity and the creation of a government that should govern the Gaza Strip after the war,” Marzouk is quoted as saying by RIA.

  Marzouk says that Hamas had asked Russia to encourage Abbas, who is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, to start negotiations about a unity government, RIA reported.

  Abbas is head of the Palestinian Authority, which governs in the  West Bank.

  The PA, controlled by Abbas’ Fatah political faction, has long had a strained relationship with Hamas, which ousted Fatah from Gaza in a bloody coup in 2007.

• 
  
  

The Region and the World

•  Two people have been arrested in Sri Lanka amid terror threats against Israelis in Arugam Bay area and other beaches in the island’s south and west, local media report.

  Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror, citing police sources, says that the Terrorism Investigation Division arrested two Sri Lankan nationals, including one who was based in Iraq.

  It says details on the two had been supplied by the intelligence service in neighboring India.

  Yesterday, Israel’s National Security Council called on Israelis to leave the popular surfing area, citing terrorism threats.

  “Those leaving these areas are advised to leave the country or at least to the capital Colombo, where there is a high presence of local security forces,” said the NSC.

  Israelis should postpone travel to the rest of the country, the warning continued. They were also urged to hide signs that indicate they are Israelis and avoid gathering in large numbers.

  The US Embassy in Sri Lanka said earlier it had “received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations” in eastern Arugam Bay, prompting the island nation’s police to pledge more security for tourists.

  
  
  

Personal Stories

  Nova festival survivor takes own life; family blames state for ignoring PTSD

Shirel Golan found dead in her home on her 22nd birthday, after developing symptoms of disorder in aftermath of attack; brother accuses authorities of failing to provide treatment

Shirel Golan in November 2023. (screen capture: Kan/YouTube)

A 22-year-old woman who survived the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7, 2023, died by suicide after a year-long struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, her family said Sunday.

Shirel Golan, who turned 22 on Sunday, was supposed to spend the day celebrating her birthday with her family. Instead, she was found lifeless at her home in the community of Porat, near Netanya, her phone filled with unanswered well-wishes from friends wishing her a happy 22nd birthday.

Her death sparked angry denunciations from Golan’s brother Eyal, who accused the state of failing to offer her needed help for emotional and mental issues in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre.

“If the state had taken care of her, none of this would have happened,” he was quoted in Hebrew media as saying. “The State of Israel killed my sister twice. Once in October, mentally, and a second time today, on her 22nd birthday, physically.”

Golan and her partner Adi were among the thousands of partygoers who managed to flee the Nova outdoor rave as Hamas-led terrorists began massacring attendees on October 7, 2023.

They initially made it to a vehicle and tried to drive out of the area, but abandoned the car once it became clear they could not escape. The pair hid under a bush for hours until they were eventually found by police officer Remo Salman El-Hozayel, who had commandeered a vehicle to rescue partygoers under fire, eventually saving some 200 people according to media reports.

While hiding, the pair narrowly avoided getting in another car whose occupants were all killed or kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while trying to reach safety, Golan told the Kan public broadcaster in November.

According to authorities, 364 people at the open-air music and dance festival near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel were slaughtered, and many of them were subjected to other atrocities, including gang rape and mutilation of victims. Dozens of others at the festival were abducted and dragged into Gaza.

Israelis visit the site of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre at the Re’im Supernova festival, in southern Israel near the Gaza border, October 6, 2024. (Yaniv Nadav/Flash90)

In the weeks and months following the assault, Golan began developing symptoms of PTSD, including disassociation and withdrawal, and was hospitalized twice, but was never recognized as a PTSD sufferer, her family said.

Eyal said that when he noticed her withdrawing from people and asked her to seek help, she replied that she had not received any help from the state, and that any assistance she had received had come from the grassroots Tribe of Nova Community association, founded by fellow survivors and relatives of victims following the attack.

He said the family had tried to take care of her themselves as best they could.

An aerial picture from October 10, 2023, shows the abandoned site of the Supernova music festival, near Kibbutz Re’im, where some 360 people were killed in Hamas’s brutal October 7 onslaught. (Jack Guez/AFP)

“My mother was forced to take early retirement to be next to her daughter. We didn’t move a millimeter from her, and the only time we left her alone was today, and she decided to take her own life,” Eyal told Channel 12 news.

He charged that the state needed to “wake up,” or there could be more suicide attempts.

“I lost my sister, but I want to raise a hue and cry so others won’t lose their loved ones,” he said, according to Ynet.

The Welfare and Social Services Ministry responded that it “provides an assistance package and support to party survivors in a wide variety of forms,” together with National Insurance agencies and other partners, including the Nova association.

It called on any survivors needing emotional or mental support to contact the ministry via a 24-hour hotline (reached by dialing 118) or online.

PTSD is a difficult-to-treat mental health condition that is triggered by either experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. Symptoms of the disorder may include flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts about what happened.

In February, Prof. Yair Bar-Haim, head of the National Center for Traumatic Stress and Resilience at Tel Aviv University, estimated that as many as 30,000 Israelis could develop PTSD as a result of the October 7 attack and resulting wars, burdening Israel’s already stretched mental health system.

“The system was already clogged before October 7. People had to wait nine months for an appointment with a psychologist in their health maintenance organization. The situation wasn’t much better if a person opted to go the private route, which has waiting lists and is expensive,” Bar-Haim said at the time. link Despite the claims of the state's institutions that she was getting help, the government has failed miserably in providing the necessary assistance, support, frameworks and professionals for the survivors. Right after the October 7 attack, it was determined to set up a special framework for the survivors, not just Nova but the survivors of the attacks everywhere in the south. Unfortunately, the government back pedaled on this and decided that the survivors could utilize the existing frameworks from the National Insurance Agency (Bituach Leumi) as though their 'experiences' is not different than anything that has been in the past. This is the type of shortsighted, narrow-mindedness and deliberate blind lack of understanding of what happened on October 7. It is not known how many other survivors have committed suicide and we hope that number will not grow, but if the government and governmental institutions that are supposed to be there for them continue in their obtuseness, we can be sure that this will not be the last suicide.

‘He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him’: Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide

A 40-year-old father of four, Eliran Mizrahi deployed to Gaza after the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Eliran Mizrahi, who took his own life in June, pictured in Gaza. 

Eliran Mizrachi Family

The Israeli military reservist returned a different person, traumatized by what he had witnessed in the war against Hamas in the strip, his family told CNN. Six months after he was first sent to fight, he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) back at home. Before he was due to redeploy, he took his own life.

“He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him. And he died after it, because of the post-trauma,” his mother, Jenny Mizrahi, said.

The Israeli military has said it is providing care for thousands of soldiers who are suffering from PTSD or mental illnesses caused by trauma during the war. It is unclear how many have taken their own lives, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not provided an official figure.

Eliran Mizrahi's grave is adorned with flowers and the Israeli flag during his military burial in Jerusalem on June 13, 2024. 

Eliran Mizrachi Family

One year on, Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, according to the health ministry in the strip, with the United Nations reporting that most of the dead are women and children.

The war, launched after Hamas killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage, is already Israel’s longest since the Jewish state was established. And as it now expands to Lebanon, some soldiers say they dread being drafted into yet another conflict.

“A lot of us are very scared of getting drafted again to a war in Lebanon,” an IDF medic who served four months in Gaza told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. “A lot of us don’t trust the government right now.”

Israeli authorities – with rare exceptions – have closed off Gaza to foreign journalists unless under IDF escort, making it difficult to capture the full extent of Palestinian suffering or the experiences of soldiers there. Israeli soldiers who fought in the enclave told CNN they witnessed horrors the outside world can never truly comprehend. Their accounts offer a rare glimpse into the brutality of what critics have called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “forever war,” and the intangible toll it takes on the soldiers who participate.

For many soldiers, the war in Gaza is a fight for Israel’s survival and must be won by any means. But the battle is also taking a mental toll that, due to stigma, is largely hidden from view. Interviews with Israeli soldiers, a medic, and the family of Mizrahi, the reservist who took his own life, provide a window into the psychological burden that the war is casting on Israeli society.

The mental health toll

Mizrahi deployed to Gaza on October 8 last year and was tasked with driving a D-9 bulldozer, a 62-ton armored vehicle that can withstand bullets and explosives.

He was a civilian for most of his life, working as a manager at an Israeli construction company. After witnessing the massacres committed by Hamas, he felt the need to fight, Jenny told CNN.

The reservist spent 186 days in the enclave until he sustained injuries to his knee, followed by hearing damage in February when a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) struck his vehicle, his family said. He was pulled out of Gaza for treatment, and in April was diagnosed with PTSD, receiving weekly talk therapy.

His treatment did not help.

“They didn’t know how to treat them (soldiers),” Jenny, who lives in the Israeli Ma’ale Adumim settlement, in the occupied West Bank, said. “They (soldiers) said the war was so different. They saw things that were never seen in Israel.”

When Mizrahi was on leave, he suffered from bouts of anger, sweating, insomnia and social withdrawal, his family said. He told his family that only those who were in Gaza with him could understand what he was going through.

“He always said, no one will understand what I saw,” his sister, Shir, told CNN.

Jenny wondered if her son killed someone and couldn’t handle it.

Displaced Palestinians walk on a dirt road lined with building rubble in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City on October 7, 2024. 

Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

“He saw a lot of people die. Maybe he even killed someone. (But) we don’t teach our children to do things like this,” she said. “So, when he did this, something like this, maybe it was a shock for him.”

Guy Zaken, Mizrahi’s friend and co-driver of the bulldozer, provided further insight into their experience in Gaza. “We saw very, very, very difficult things,” Zaken told CNN. “Things that are difficult to accept.”

The former soldier has spoken publicly about the psychological trauma endured by Israeli troops in Gaza. In a testimony to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in June, Zaken said that on many occasions, soldiers had to “run over terrorists, dead and alive, in the hundreds.”

“Everything squirts out,” he added.

Zaken says he can no longer eat meat, as it reminds him of the gruesome scenes he witnessed from his bulldozer in Gaza, and struggles to sleep at night, the sound of explosions ringing in his head.

“When you see a lot of meat outside, and blood… both ours and theirs (Hamas), then it really affects you when you eat,” he told CNN, referring to bodies as “meat.”

He maintains that the vast majority of those he encountered were “terrorists.”

“The civilians we saw, we stopped and brought them water to drink, and we let them eat from our food,” he recalled, adding that even in such situations, Hamas fighters would shoot at them.

“So, there is no such thing as citizens,” he said, referring to the ability of Hamas fighters to blend with civilians. “This is terrorism.”

When soldiers do encounter civilians, however, many face a moral dilemma, according to the IDF medic who spoke to CNN anonymously.

There was a “very strong collective attitude” of distrust among Israeli soldiers toward the Palestinians in Gaza, especially at the outset of the war, the medic said.

There was a notion that Gazans, including civilians, “are bad, that they support Hamas, that they help Hamas, that they were hiding ammunition,” the medic said.

In the field, however, some of these attitudes changed “when you actually see Gazan civilians in front of your eyes,” they said.

The IDF has said that it does all it can to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, including by sending text messages, making phone calls, and dropping evacuation leaflets to warn civilians ahead of attacks.

Despite this, civilians in Gaza have been repeatedly killed in large numbers, including when sheltering in areas the military itself has designated as “safe zones.”

The mental health toll in Gaza is likely to be enormous. Relief groups and the UN have repeatedly highlighted the catastrophic mental health consequences of the war on civilians in Gaza, many of whom had already been scarred by a 17-year blockade and several wars with Israel. In an August report, the UN said the experiences of Gazans defy “traditional biomedical definitions” of PTSD, “given that there is no ‘post’ in Gaza’s context.”

After Mizrahi took his own life, videos and photos surfaced on social media of the reservist bulldozing homes and buildings in Gaza and posing in front of vandalized structures. Some of the images, which were purportedly posted on his now removed social media accounts, appeared in a documentary that he was interviewed for on Israel’s Channel 13.

His sister, Shir, said she saw a lot of comments on social media accusing Mizrahi of being “a murderer,” cursing at him and replying with unpleasant emojis.

“It was hard,” she said, adding that she tried her best to overlook it. “I know he had a good heart.”

Clearing dead people with debris

Ahron Bregman, a political scientist at King’s College London who served in the Israeli army for six years, including during the 1982 Lebanon War, said the Gaza war is unlike any other fought by Israel.

“It’s very long,” he said, and it is urban, which means soldiers fight among many people, “the vast majority of them are civilians.”

Bulldozer operators are among those who are most directly exposed to the war’s brutality, Bregman said. “What they see is dead people, and they clear them (along) with the debris,” he told CNN. “They go over them.”

Palestinian women mourn a relative killed in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital in Deir al-Balah on March 22, 2024. 

Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

For many, the transition from the battlefield back to civilian life can be overwhelming, especially after urban warfare that involves the deaths of women and children, Bregman said.

“How can you put your children to bed when, you know, you saw children killed in Gaza?”

Despite Mizrahi’s PTSD, his family said he agreed to return to Gaza when he was called up again. Two days before he was meant to re-deploy, he killed himself.

In her home, Jenny has dedicated a room to memorialize her late son, with photos from his childhood and working in construction. Among the objects his mother has kept was the cap Mizrahi was wearing when he shot himself in the head, the bullet holes clearly visible.

Mizrahi’s family started speaking out about his death after the IDF did not grant him a military burial, saying he had not been “in active reserve duty.” They later reversed their decision.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 10 soldiers took their own lives between October 7 and May 11, according to military data obtained by the newspaper.

Eliran Mizrahi pictured as a child in a photo collage framed in his family home, in the occupied West Bank. 

Eliran Mizrachi Family

Asked by CNN about the number of suicides in the IDF since the war, Uzi Bechor, a psychologist and commander of the IDF’s Combat Response Unit, said the medical corps is not allowed to provide a figure, and the military sees the suicide rate as largely unchanged.

“The suicide rate in the army is more or less stable in the last five or six years,” Bechor said, noting that it has in fact been falling over the past 10 years.

Even if the number of suicides is higher, he said, the ratio so far “is quite the same from the previous year because we have more soldiers.”

“It doesn’t mean that there is a trend of more suicide,” Bechor told CNN.

He didn’t provide CNN with the number of suicides or their rate. “Every case for us is heartbreaking,” he said.

Still, more than a third of those removed from combat are found to have mental health issues. In a statement in August, the Israeli defense ministry’s rehabilitation division said that every month, more than 1,000 new wounded soldiers are removed from fighting for treatment, 35% of whom complain about their mental state, with 27% developing “a mental reaction or post-traumatic stress disorder.”

It added that by the end of the year, 14,000 wounded fighters will likely be admitted for treatment, approximately 40% of whom are expected to face mental health issues.

More than 500 people die by suicide in Israel and over 6,000 others attempt suicide every year, according to the country’s ministry of health, which notes that “there is under-reporting of approximately 23% in the numbers mentioned.”

In 2021, suicide was the leading cause of death among IDF soldiers, the Times of Israel reported, citing military data that showed at least 11 soldiers had taken their own lives that year.

Earlier this year, the ministry of health sought to “debunk rumors of rising suicide rates since October 7,” saying that the reported cases are “isolated incidents in the media and in social media.” Without providing numbers, the ministry said that there was a “decrease in suicide in Israel between October and December in comparison with the same months in recent years.”

Bregman, the Lebanon war veteran, said that PTSD and other mental health issues are now easier to talk about than in the 1970s and 1980s thanks to the diminishing stigma. Still, he said, the soldiers coming out of Gaza will “carry (their experiences) for the rest of their lives.”

The IDF medic who spoke to CNN said that there is a mental health officer designated to every unit of the army during and after deployment. The impact of the war nonetheless persists, the medic said, with soldiers as young as 18 suffering from mental trauma in Gaza. They would often cry or would appear emotionally numb, the medic added.

Normalizing the abnormal

Bechor, the IDF psychologist, said that one of the ways the military helps traumatized troops resume their lives is to try to “normalize” what they went through, partly by reminding them of the horrors committed on October 7.

“This situation is not normal for human beings,” Bechor said, adding that when soldiers come back from the battlefield with PTSD symptoms, they ask: “How do I get back home after what I saw? How do I get to engage with my kids after what I saw?”

“We try to normalize it and to help them remember their values and why did they go there (to Gaza),” he told CNN.

For the tens of thousands of Israelis who volunteered or were called up to fight, the war in Gaza was seen not only seen as an act of self-defense but as an existential battle. That notion was touted by top Israeli political and military leaders, as well as Israel’s international allies.

Soldiers carry the coffin of an Israeli Captain who was killed in fighting in southern Gaza, during his funeral in Beit Jann, Israel, on June 16, 2024. 

Amir Levy/Getty Images

Netanyahu has described Hamas as “the new Nazis” and US President Joe Biden has said that the “ancient hatred of Jews” endorsed by the Nazis was “brought back to life” on October 7.

The external threats to their country unified many Israelis, putting on hold domestic political squabbling that had for months divided society. Meanwhile, the suffering of Palestinians has largely been absent from Israeli television screens, which are dominated by news about the hostages in Gaza.

After the Hamas attacks, polls showed that most Israelis supported the war in Gaza, and did not want their government to halt the fighting even while negotiating to release the kidnapped hostages. On the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack, a survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that only 6% of Israelis think the war in Gaza should be stopped due to the “the great cost in human life.”

Some soldiers, however, couldn’t rationalize the horrors they had seen.

When he returned from Gaza, Mizrahi often told his family that he felt “invisible blood” coming out of him, his mother said.

Shir, his sister, blames the war for her brother’s death. “Because of the army, because of this war, my brother is not here,” she said. “Maybe he didn’t die from a bullet (in combat) or an RPG, but he died from an invisible bullet,” she added, referring to his psychological pain. 

The editor’s note on this story has been updated.

What is Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? PTSD is a mental health condition caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events, according to the UK National Health Service. Someone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt. PTSD can develop immediately after someone experiences a disturbing event, or it can occur weeks, months or even years later. link

https://www.ynet.co.il/health/article/hydanti1yl#autoplay 

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

The Two Abandonments of Benjamin Netanyahu

Dr. Amir Peleg

Historian.

When history comes to judge Benjamin Netanyahu’s term as Prime Minister of Israel, it will turn to two main acts of abandonment that he has championed, both of which have brought the security and the social cohesion of the State of Israel to their lowest and most dangerous points since its founding in 1948. Those two acts of relinquishment endanger the security of the state and forsake the hostages in Gaza.

On the national security front, over his 14 years of nearly uninterrupted rule Netanyahu has prioritized his own political survival over confronting major security threats. This has led him to develop the “containment” approach towards Hezbollah and Hamas, which have during his time in power grown and developed from minor players to a clearcut and present danger to the safety of Israel. At the same time, he neglected the Iranian front, allowing it to surround Israel with a ring of fire by funding those very same organizations, alongside others. This policy was a complete about-face from the “Begin Doctrine,” the previous cornerstone of the Israeli national security policy. This doctrine was based on Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s conclusion after the Holocaust that we should fully believe our enemies’ stated desire to destroy us, and act in any way necessary to abolish the threat.

First and foremost, among Netanyahu’s reckless moves stands the years- long campaign to foster, strengthen and fund the terrorist organization Hamas. Determinedly and in cold blood, Netanyahu strove to turn Hamas from a minor and weak organization into a state-like entity which controls the Gaza strip while receiving hundreds of millions of US dollars in funds used mainly for increasing its military power. He sent envoys to make sure the Qatari money for arms and munitions kept flowing. He repeatedly refused to take out Hamas terrorist leaders, or to diminish its military power, and took action to close down the Mossad’s “Harpoon” unit, meant to prevent the flow of funds to Hamas and Hezbollah. Netanyahu’s reckless conscious neglect of the national security front led directly to the disaster of October 7th.

Alongside the reckless neglect on the security front, one cannot stress enough the social and moral act of forsaking the hostages held in the Gaza strip since October 7th. Since its founding over seven decades ago, the Israeli ethos has placed front and center the commitment to any civilian or soldier that, should they fall into enemy hands, the state will do all in its power to get them back home safely. Operation Entebbe, the Savoy Hotel raid, and many other incidents have reinforced this maxim over the years. Various hostage deals have also reinforced this principle, chiefly, the Jibril deal in the 1980’s as thousands of terrorists were released in exchange for a handful of soldiers, and the solitary release of Gilad Shalit in 2011.

Now Netanyahu has taken up arms against the Israeli ethos, that which separates us from our enemies, instead saying to each and every one of us: you are on your own. Not only did I not bother to defend your person and your security; Not only did I knowingly arm and strengthen the terrorists who abducted you; I will now resist the hostage deal that will bring you back. It is on the basis of these two acts of abandonment that history will judge Netanyahu as the most harmful, reckless and dangerous leader in the history of Israel. 

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission

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