Suicide Stories: What They Reveal About Israeli Occupation’s Hidden Gaza Death Toll

The Israeli Occupation army continues to suffer heavy blows across all its advance zones in Gaza, with helicopters carrying the dead flying nonstop over the Strip toward hospitals in the Negev and “Tel Aviv.”

At the same time, the Israeli government bans media outlets from reporting on many casualty-related incidents—except for what the army officially approves under the label “permitted for publication”—in an effort to maintain soldier morale.

“Israel” also enforces strict legal and security measures to suppress any attempt to reveal the true scale of its “human losses” in its ground war on Gaza. Yet these efforts have failed to fully conceal the toll being inflicted on its forces.

This has taken a clear toll on the mental health of both active-duty soldiers and those recently discharged.

The Army Is Lying!

By the end of April 2025, the Israeli military admitted to the deaths of 850 officers and soldiers, and the injury of 5,667 others since the war began on October 7, 2023.

This stands in stark contrast to Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir’s February 2, 2025, statement that “5,942 new Israeli families joined the list of bereaved in 2024” — families who lost loved ones in the army.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, Zamir also revealed that over 15,000 injured individuals had entered the rehabilitation system as disabled or wounded soldiers.

Though the remarks were made behind closed doors and aimed at pressing for more recruitment, their leak and spread were crucial in confirming what the Palestinian Resistance has long asserted: that “Israel” is concealing the true scale of its mounting losses.

Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has released multiple videos clearly documenting the deaths of Israeli soldiers in ambushes and carefully planned operations.

Yet, the Israeli army consistently reports far fewer casualties—an old pattern stretching back decades.

One of the Qassam Brigades’ notable operations took place in Juhr al-Dik in central Gaza on December 16, 2023, when resistance fighters stormed a fortified Israeli position.

They released footage of “the surprise,” capturing weapons and announcing the deaths of 10 Israeli Occupation soldiers in the attack—yet the army reported no casualties that day.

Unofficial figures suggest that hospital records across “Israel” logged a total of 13,000 Israeli deaths from the war in Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank — even before war resumed in Gaza in March 2025.

Despite Israeli Occupation's tight grip on reporting its losses, Hebrew media revealed on June 28, 2024, that over 500 Israeli armored vehicles had been destroyed or damaged in Gaza since the war began.

How Does ‘Israel’ Keep It Quiet?

Israeli affairs expert Saleh Ibrahim says the army's concealment of soldier death tolls has become an open secret—even among Israeli society itself.

“The army controls the media and medical sector, allowing it to suppress any information about the true scale of losses from Palestinian Resistance attacks on its ground forces,” he told Al-Estiklal.

The Israeli military avoids announcing the real numbers, fearing a collapse in morale among soldiers and the wider public. According to Ibrahim, “The October 7 attacks deeply shook the troops—many saw their comrades killed or captured inside their tanks, stripped of their gear, and fleeing positions under fire. This prompted even tighter censorship.”

Ibrahim pointed out that certain categories of soldiers are deliberately placed in high-risk missions and their deaths are easier to hide—such as soldiers of unknown parentage, whose numbers reportedly reach into the thousands, and “lone immigrant soldiers” who gained citizenship without family ties. When these soldiers die, the army often makes no announcement at all.

“The army sometimes negotiates with families of fallen soldiers, asking them not to publicize their sons’ deaths ‘for national reasons’—a request many, particularly from far-right communities, accept,” the expert added.

“In other cases, the military offers money to families from marginalized groups in Zionist society, such as Mizrahi Jews, Russian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, Arabs, and Druze.”

As for foreign mercenaries who joined the army by the thousands for pay, not only are their deaths hidden—their very presence in the army is kept quiet. These fighters are often sent on near-suicidal missions with close-quarters engagement expected.

The army’s disclosure strategy follows a pattern: first, it warns the public of a “fierce battle in Gaza,” then waits to see if resistance fighters will release footage confirming casualties. Only then does the army decide which deaths to reveal and which to suppress—typically downplaying the event and omitting key details.

The military also distorts the causes of death. “Some soldiers killed by resistance fighters are listed as having died from friendly fire,” Ibrahim said. Explosions from booby-trapped homes are often labeled as “building collapses,” as if due to structural decay, rather than attacks.

“Israel” relies on military censorship to obscure its real death and injury counts. This censorship is overseen by a unit under the army's Intelligence Directorate (Aman), headed by an officer known as the “military censor.”

This censor has sweeping powers—from banning coverage of military topics to wiretapping phone calls. Disobeying the censor can result in imprisonment, closure of media outlets, confiscation of equipment, or revocation of press credentials—without explanation.

Topics most strictly banned include: soldier death tolls, failed operations, missile strike locations, elite unit names, army movements, secret agreements, names of senior officers in sensitive roles, and military technology developments.

Israeli media is also forbidden from sharing footage released by the Resistance showing army losses, or even statements by the Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson, Abu Obaida.

Broken Morale

Despite the massive efforts of the military censor, the army, and oversight agencies, “Israel” has failed to achieve its goal of concealing the true number of its dead, wounded, and permanently disabled soldiers.

Morale among Israeli troops has plummeted to unprecedented levels due to the intensity of the fighting in Gaza, which left thousands with physical and psychological disabilities.

According to figures from Israeli Occupation’s Ministry of War, the rehabilitation department is currently treating around 78,000 wounded soldiers from various wars, including more than 26,000 suffering from psychological injuries—some 11,000 of whom have been formally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, nearly 17,000 additional wounded have been added to these figures as of April 2025.

An investigation by Haaretz revealed that the army, facing a severe shortage of combat personnel, was forced to call up reservists—some of whom were already suffering from PTSD or even permanent mental disabilities. This led to tragic outcomes, including confirmed cases of suicide.

On May 19, 2025, Haaretz reported that the Israeli military had deployed psychologically unfit soldiers to combat units without proper mental health assessments, fearing that such screenings would expose a crisis within the reserves.

That same day, Channel 13 aired a chilling account from Reserve First Sergeant Yoni Schweitzer, who described a soldier under his command suffering from severe PTSD.

“While staying at his brother’s home with family and guests, the soldier emerged from a room armed with a pistol, shouting that militants were present. From what I understood, he believed they were around him and opened fire on everyone in the house,” he said.

“He shot his brother’s wife, his nephew, and a childhood friend who had been part of their lives for over two decades. She was seriously injured.”

“It’s heartbreaking to see fighters reach this state—unable to adapt after their combat service,” Schweitzer added.

In another case aired by Channel 13, a soldier suffering from severe trauma opened fire on his relatives, mistaking them for Palestinian fighters.

The rise in psychological disabilities among soldiers, coupled with collapsing morale, has led to record-high suicide rates in the Israeli army.

Haaretz reported unprecedented figures in its investigation, revealing that at least 35 soldiers had died by suicide between the start of the war and the end of 2024—amid tight-lipped silence from military officials.

The Israeli army continues to refuse to disclose the precise number of suicides in 2025. Sources indicate that many of the fallen were buried quietly, without military honors or public announcements.