Reservist Soldier Found Dead On Day Of His Wedding, Knesset To Discuss Spate Of IDF Suicides

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — BDE: A reservist soldier was found dead on Tuesday morning, the day of his wedding. The soldier, who had just celebrated his 32nd birthday at the end of August, was found shot in his apartment by friends who had come to accompany him on his wedding day. They called emergency services. Magen David Adom paramedics were dispatched to the scene and were forced to declare his death at the scene. The circumstances of the incident are under investigation but it is currently being treated as suicide. There have been nearly 50 suicides in the IDF since October 7, according to Israeli media reports.

Last month, another combat officer in reserve service was found dead in northern Israel. The IDF announced that his family had been notified, and that following the incident, a Military Police investigation was opened. Once completed, the findings will be submitted for review by the Military Advocate General.

“The IDF shares in the family’s grief and will continue to support them,” said the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

In light of the recent suicides among IDF soldiers in both regular and reserve service, the Jerusalem Institute of Justice appealed to the newly appointed Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Boaz Bismuth, requesting an urgent discussion on the matter.

“Following a dramatic and unprecedented increase, both in data and in the number of suicide cases and suicide attempts among soldiers serving in regular or reserve duty, due to symptoms of post-trauma and severe psychological distress, I hereby request, as the incoming chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, that you convene an emergency session on this issue in the coming days,”
wrote Dr. Adv. Guy Akoka from the Jerusalem Institute of Justice.

About three months ago, Daniel Edri, 24 years old, took his own life. Just a month earlier, he had celebrated his 24th birthday, but it was not a happy day. He was in deep psychological distress, struggling to cope with the pain, the sights, and the smells that had burned into him during the war in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. But he could bear it no longer, and ended his life in Biriya Forest, the beautiful forest near Safed where he had grown up.

In addition to the traumatic scenes, Daniel also had to deal with the murder of two of his childhood friends at the Nova music festival, Elyasaf Ben-Porat and Gabriel Yishai Barel. He had wanted to go to the site in Re’im to help his friends but wasn’t able to. Their deaths haunted and deeply pained him.