“Mentally damaged” Israeli soldiers refusing orders to return to combat

11/01/2024 / By Kevin Hughes

More and more Israeli soldiers are quietly refusing orders to return to fight, stating they are depressed, worn out, psychologically damaged and unmotivated after a year of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

This was based on a report published on Sunday, Oct. 20, by the ultra-Orthodox-oriented Hebrew-language magazine Ha-Makom, which interviewed several soldiers and parents of veterans who refuse to return to Gaza.

When a platoon of 30 soldiers of the Nahal Brigade was ordered to enter Gaza for the most recent of many tours, only six reported for duty.

“They return to the same buildings that they cleaned, each time trapping them anew. They have been to the Al-Zaytun neighborhood three times already. They understand that it is futile and pointless,” said the mother of one of the soldiers in the platoon. “Because they were a small team, they couldn’t go out on missions. They just stayed there and waited for the time to pass. It was even more unnecessary.”

Apart from fighting Hamas, Israeli soldiers have been destroying residential buildings with explosives, sniping children, bombing hospitals and schools serving as lodging displaced people and devastating Gaza’s water and electrical infrastructure.

Many Israeli soldiers mentally damaged by war

Another mother of a soldier shared what her son told her: “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. I don’t know what army they’re thinking of entering Lebanon with, but I’m not going back to the battalion.”

As reported by those interviewed by Ha-Makom, no organization or mass movement helps soldiers decline to serve. Instead, a soldier simply goes to his commander and reports that he is unable to fight. He is then removed from the active rolls and deployed to a non-combat position somewhere else.

“Things are resolved within the unit. It happens all the time. There is an incessant covert drop from fighting,” one parent said. They call this “silent refusal” or “gray refusal.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has said it is giving care for thousands of soldiers who are suffering from PTSD or mental illnesses caused by trauma during the war. It is not clear how many have taken their own lives, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not given an official number. (Related: More and more Israeli soldiers becoming DISABLED as Gaza conflict drags on.)

The war is already Israel’s longest since the Jewish state was established. As it now reaches Lebanon, some soldiers said they fear being drafted into another battle.

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

Israeli authorities with few exceptions have closed off Gaza to foreign journalists unless under IDF escort, making it hard to capture the complete extent of Palestinians suffering or the experiences of soldiers there.

Israeli soldiers who fought in the territory said they witnessed horrors the outside world can never truly understand. Their accounts provide a scarce preview into the brutality of what critics have branded as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “forever war,” and the indefinite toll it takes on the soldiers who take part in the fighting.

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Watch the video below about an Israeli soldier speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza.

This video is from the alltheworldsastage channel on Brighteon.com.