“What drew attention is the unusual number of suicides recently,” Stern said. “We’ve addressed this before, but it has become more urgent after soldiers returned from fighting in Gaza.”
Trigger warning: This article discusses sensitive topics such as suicide.
Sixteen IDF soldiers have committed suicide in 2025, Brig. Gen. Amir Vadmani of the IDF Personnel Directorate presented to the subcommittee for human resources in the IDF on Tuesday.
Additionally, 21 soldiers committed suicide in 2024, 17 in 2023, and 14 in 2022.
The committee, chaired by MK Elazar Stern, convened to discuss efforts within the IDF to prevent suicides among soldiers.
“What drew attention is the unusual number of suicides recently,” Stern said.
IDF soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, August 1, 2025. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)
“We’ve addressed this before, but it has become more urgent after soldiers returned from fighting in Gaza.”
The committee met with various family members of soldiers who took their own lives, and outlined their two main goals.
The committee will work to reduce soldier suicides
“The first is how to reduce this phenomenon,” Stern explained.
“The IDF has experience in this area. When working groups were established in the past, the IDF succeeded in reducing the number of suicides by tens of percentage points. We need to continue to explore what steps can be taken and how much support soldiers receive from their families, society, and workplaces.”
The second goal, he continued, was how the defense system could best comfort the families of the soldiers, potentially with partial or full recognition of the deceased as a fallen soldier.
“We believe that if the defense system can find a way to do so, we would, of course, support it.”
