Driving the news:
Haaretz revealed that the unnamed senior drone operator—restricted from identification due to military censorship—took his own life a few weeks after coming back from Gaza, where he had participated in high-fatality strikes.
Why it matters:
The case exposes the widening psychological and moral fractures within the Israeli military as its Gaza campaign faces growing condemnation for high toll of civilian deaths. It also underscores what Israeli medical officers themselves describe as a systemic failure to recognize or treat the moral injury and trauma among forces involved in that war.
What we're hearing:
Colleagues say the officer experienced a “gradual mental breakdown,” unable to reconcile the destruction and civilian casualties he witnessed in real time through drone cameras. He repeatedly voiced opposition to the continuation of the Gaza war, saying:
“What is happening will leave permanent scars. The spirits of the innocent and the children killed in Gaza won’t leave me.”
By the numbers:
A new Knesset research report—requested by MK Ofer Cassif—documents a sharp surge in suicide and attempted suicide within the Israeli military:
279 suicide attempts between Jan 2024 – Jul 2025
40 completed suicides in that same period
12% classified as “dangerous,” 88% as “moderate” attempts
124 suicides from 2017–2025, including:
68% conscript soldiers
21% reservists
11% career personnel
The big peicture:
The revelations add to mounting evidence that Israel’s drone units—central to the air campaign criticized worldwide for mass civilian casualties—are experiencing severe moral injury.
The Israeli regime's genocidal war on Gaza has so far left more than 70,000 people killed, a large part of whom are childen and women. The Israeli strikes have destroyed the infrastructures in Gaza, leaving the people struggling with starvation and lack of medical services.
Israeil bombed al-Mamadani Hospital in Gaza during the first days of the genocidal war on the Strip.
Go deeper:
18 Israeli Forces Have Committed Suicide Since Start of 2025
Zohre Khazaee - seyed mohammad kazemi
