Expectations of Increasing the Number of Occupation Soldiers with Disabilities to 100,000 by 2028

SadaNews - The Israeli Ministry of Defense expects that the number of soldiers and those classified as injured with physical or psychological disabilities will rise to about 100,000 people by the year 2028, with almost half suffering from psychological injuries, according to what was reported by the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth" on Sunday.

These estimates include war casualties among the Israeli army on its various fronts, but the vast majority of them were injured since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and during the long months of the war on the Gaza Strip.

According to official data reported by the newspaper, more than 10,000 soldiers have received psychological treatment since the beginning of the war, with 3,769 of them recognized as suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), including 1,600 soldiers in just the year 2024, while about 9,000 others are undergoing official recognition procedures.

Data suggests that 693 of the recognized individuals serve in regular service, 144 in permanent service, and 184 in reserve, while the others belong to various categories, including former soldiers injured during their service. For comparison, in 2014 during the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, only 159 injuries were recognized, and in 2015, 175.

Since the beginning of the current war, 18,500 new injuries have been recorded in the rehabilitation department of the Ministry of Defense among army and security personnel, with more than half suffering from psychological damage. The department points to a new phenomenon characterized by the "decreasing age of psychological injury victims," as a significant proportion of these individuals are under the age of 30, including reservist soldiers and parents of young children.

At the height of the incursion into the Gaza Strip, more than 30,000 soldiers from both the regular and reserve forces participated, many of whom were exposed to scenes of violence, corpses, and direct combat. According to professional sources in the Ministry of Defense, "The real psychological damage often appears after fighting ends and soldiers return to civilian life, not during active service, which explains the estimates of increasing cases later on."

Additionally, cases of those who served in previous military operations years ago in Jenin or northern West Bank have returned now seeking treatment after being affected by the events in Gaza, according to the ministry. The ministry confirmed that "more than 12,000 of the injured not only left their combat units but also exited the labor market, causing additional damage to the economy."

To address the pressure, the Ministry of Defense has developed multiple support programs, including: 10 rehabilitative farms, open lodgings near psychiatric departments, a permanent center for mentally injured reservists, and an emergency response system through mobile treatment units for acute cases, including suicide attempts.

Hundreds of cases classified as acute have required involuntary admission to psychiatric hospitals, and the ministry notes that the mobile psychological treatment unit sometimes handles 3-4 emergencies per day. It also confirmed that personal treatment provision is limited due to a shortage of specialists, with one social worker overseeing 750 injured individuals in the rehabilitation department.

An official statement from the army indicated that a psychological emergency center has been established since the beginning of the war, and recently, a long-term center for providing psychological treatment to injured soldiers has been inaugurated. A dedicated unit for discharged soldiers has also been activated.

Two Israeli Officers and Soldiers Killed in Armored Vehicle Explosion in Khan Younis

The Israeli army announced on Sunday the death of an officer and a soldier from the "Golani" unit on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, during an attack carried out by Palestinian resistance factions that targeted a military armored vehicle in the Abasan al-Kabira area east of Khan Younis in the southern sector.

According to details that were later permitted to be released, the explosion occurred around 6:30 PM on Saturday in the Abasan al-Kabira area "east of Khan Younis," after Palestinian militants - believed to have emerged from a tunnel - managed to approach an armored vehicle of the "Namer" model.

Resistance elements attached an explosive device to the troop carrier. The explosion resulted in the death of two soldiers from the technology and maintenance unit in 'Golani', and injured a third soldier with moderate injuries.

According to Israeli media reports, a second explosive device was thrown at another armored troop carrier that was transporting officers and soldiers from the same unit, but it did not explode, and no injuries were reported in this vehicle.

With the deaths of the two soldiers, the number of Israeli army fatalities in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of July has risen to 18 officers and soldiers, while the total number of fatalities since the beginning of the war on Gaza reached 898 officers and soldiers, with 6,145 injured.

A strict military censor is imposed in Israel regarding details of human and material losses among the army, at a time when the military establishment faces internal criticism accusing it of withholding complete data from the public.