CrossFireArarbia

Soldiers Take A Gun To Their Heads and Shoot!

CrossFireArabia
December 21, 2025

More Israeli soldiers are committing suicide than ever before. Today, the number of soldiers who have taken away their lives stands at 61 since the Israeli war on Gaza that began on 7 October, 2023.

These are official figures put out by the Israeli army with the figure likely to be much higher than that. As proof, the number of those soldiers who attempted suicide but failed is put at 279.

Israeli soldiers, long actively serving in the excecution of the Gaza genocide, have resorted to desperate and extreme measures. So far, 20 soldiers took their lives in 2025 because of the atrocities they seen and committed in Gaza.

The trend has been raising since October 2023 when at least seven soldiers committed suicide in the last three months of that year and with the total number standing at 17. In 2024, and at the heights of the Israeli war and when at least 43,000 Palestinians were killed, including 17,000 children, the suicide figure amongst Israeli soldiers stood to at least 21.

The trend has become increasingly disturbing for the Israeli authorities because in previous years the suicide rates were 14 in 2022, 11 in 2021, 9 in 2020, 12 in 2019, 9 in 2018 and 16 soldiers took their lives in 2017. These numbers were considered ‘normal’ in an Israel army that had a manpower force of around 170,000 but increased by 350,000 soon after the war started.

However, the disturbing suicidal trends become more glaring during the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza. The situation was becoming so bad that the Knesset Research and Information Committee (KRIC) produced a full report on 28 October, 2025. It focused on the period between January 2024 till July 2025 and found that one in seven of those who attempted suicide succeeded in killing themselves.

The KRIC, mainly a data collection committee, found that combat ground soldiers serving in the different areas of Gaza accounted for 78 percent of all suicides in 2024 and which is about 45 percent more of the suicidals from 2017 till 2022.

The committee also found that only 17 percent of those that committed suicide had met with a mental health officer in the previous two months. Because of the extent of violence, horror of the Israeli war, and probably the extent of the stiff resistance to the Israeli soldiers which resulted in their death and injuries, many had required psychiatric treatment.

Since October 2023 up till today 85,000 required psychological treatment in the rehabilitation unit of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Today, over 10,000 soldiers are undergoing intensive medical health treatment that include mental health problems.

One of the major health mental problems suffered by Israeli soldiers in Gaza is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which includes flashbacks of reliving violent events, nightmares, feeling on edge, avoidance of places, constant fear, detachment, emotional numbness, memory problems and constant stress.

Most of these soldiers were in places in Gaza were mass bombs we’re being dropped, houses decimated, blood everywhere. As UN statistics show Gaza was being razed to the ground with more than 60 millions tons of debris and rubble and in many cases soldiers going through these with the constant fear of Palestinian fighters watching them, shooting at them or booby-trapping their tanks that was a major characteristic of this war.

Why Did They Commit Suicide?

Official figures estimate there are under 4000 who are diagnosed with PTSD and another 9000 who are yet to be diagnosed with the mental disease that is ripping Israeli society apart with soldiers taking their lives in different locations at military bases, in parks, near a beach, in their homes, and in one case, outside a Jewish settlement in Safad where a soldier, named Daniel Edri, sat in his car and set fire to it and burning himself alive.

His previous job was to carry the bodies of dead Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza. In a note to his mother, he wrote he continued to be haunted by the “smell and vision” of corpses he carried after being killed in combat with Palestinian resistance fighters.

And then in many cases there was the issue of deep guilt and which psychologists prefer to call “moral injury” carried by Israeli soldiers. There was the case of Eliran Mizrahi, a 40-year-old engineer who committed suicide on 7 June 2024, two days before he was called up to go back to Rafah, the southern-most city in the Gaza Strip. He was a D9 armored bulldozer operator and had previously spent 186 days in Gaza.

His co-operator Guy Zaken later told the Knesset committee that they were ordered on many occasions “to run over terrorists, dead or alive in the hundreds.” Zaken used a graphic description to describe what he was doing, saying ‘everything squirts out” in reference to the crushed bodies under his bulldozer.

He told the committee he can no longer eat meat because the sight and smell of it reminded him of what he did on the battlefield field of Gaza, scars which will likely haunt him for the rest of his life.

And then there was the case of Lithuanian Jew Tomas Adzgauskas who killed himself in a public park outside northern Gaza on 4 December, 2025. He was a reserve officer and a sniper in the Givati Brigade.

Although he was discharged from the Israeli army in April, 2024, the psycholgical stress eventually led him to suicide.

In a final note on Facebook, he wrote “…I am ruin and devastation…I did things that can’t be forgiven, and I can’t live with it anymore…there is a demon inside me that has been chasing me since 7.11…”

These were just two names among the many like Norwegian-born Dan Phillipson and Roi Wasserstein. The last took a gun to his head after 300 days of active duty in war-devastated Gaza while Ariel Meir Taman was found dead in his home in July 2025.

They died because of what they saw and did in Gaza, couldn’t believe their eyes and eventually decided to end their lives because of the scale of devastation and killing as 200,000 tons of explosives were dropped on the 364-kilometer Gaza Strip that is equivalent to 13 or 14 Hiroshima atomic bombs.

Analyses

For Israel The ‘Yellow Line’ is Occupation

CrossFireArabia
December 21, 2025

By Ismail Al Sharif

Two months after the signing of the ceasefire, that remains merely ink on paper, the region is yet to witness a fundamental shift to the second phase: A transition from a strategy of destruction to a withdrawal mechanism, and from the logic of military operations to a framework of international administration, paving the way for a political process to ultimately lead to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.

However, the realities on the ground today proves this path is nothing more than a theoretical assumption quickly crumbling in the face of a complex reality.

Two months after the supposed ceasefire, a completely different truth emerges; Israel continues its ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian civilians are dying from the bitter cold, just as they previously perished from the bombardment, while unilateral decisions are being made whilst deepening the chasm of mistrust between the parties supposedly partnering in ending this humanitarian tragedy and implementing the Donald Trump plan, who claims to have ended a three-thousand-year-old war.

What was supposed to be a temporary withdrawal line for the Israeli army has, according to its generals, become a new de facto border called the “Yellow Line,” swallowing up more than half of the Gaza Strip.

Early this month, the army’s chief of staff Eyal Zamir addressed his troops, asserting Israel “now exercises effective control over vast areas of the Strip” and its military units “will maintain their positions on these defensive lines.” He explicitly declared “the Yellow Line represents a new border of an advanced line of defense to protect Israeli society, and serves as a framework for the ongoing military operational activity.”

From these comments it can be understood the ceasefire line is no longer a temporary, transitional measure, but has effectively become a forcibly-imposed border, a permanent defensive zone, and a legal framework that legitimizes a long-term Israeli military presence within territories that, until recently, were an integral part of the Palestinian territories.

These pronouncements are not merely political rhetoric. The “Yellow Line” is now embodied on the ground by massive, yellow-painted concrete blocks that bisect the Gaza Strip to a depth of between 1.5 and 6.5 kilometers. Before the recent escalation, the Strip extended about 41 kilometers in length and between 6 and 12 kilometers in width. As it stands however, Israel has tightened its grip on more than half of this area in one of the world’s most densely-populated regions. This has exacerbated overcrowding, drastically reduced usable land, and devastated the agricultural sector, thus intensifying the humanitarian catastrophe, entrenching mass forced displacement, deepening the destruction, and contributing to the complete collapse of the institutional infrastructure.

The Zamir statements cannot be separated from the context of the pronouncements of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, who, from northern occupied Palestine, spoke of the expansion of his northern and northeastern borders by establishing a demilitarized buffer zone from the Syrian capital, Damascus, to the occupied Golan Heights. This is being made with the advance of his military forces into the UN-monitored buffer zone and the occupation of the Syrian side of Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh). Also, Israel is presently establishing establishing a “buffer zone” in the territory of southern Lebanon, destroying border villages and/or leaving them completely depopulated and deploying military reinforcements at strategic border points to impose a new security and geopolitical reality by force.

According to the Trump’s plan the second phase was supposed to begin after Hamas fulfilled its commitment to release all Israeli captives, both alive and deceased, and after Netanyahu announced his readiness to move to this phase.

However, this transition was contingent on two fundamental conditions: The deployment of international peacekeeping forces and the complete disarmament of Hamas. Herein lies the complexity of the issue; Netanyahu has publicly expressed skepticism about the ability of any international force to carry out the disarmament mission and has categorically stated that Hamas’s disarmament will be achieved through coercive military means and under the direct supervision of Israeli forces.

In contrast, Hamas maintains its categorical refusal to disarm except within a comprehensive framework that includes the formation of a unified Palestinian ‘technocratic” government and a complete withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces. At a minimum, Hamas has expressed its willingness to store its weapons within an agreed-upon mechanism as part of a comprehensive political process, as confirmed by Bassem Naim, a member of the movement’s political bureau, in recent statements.

The current situation reveals that Israel is treating the existing circumstances as a strategic opportunity to expand its geographical borders and exert maximum pressure on the Palestinian people, paving the way for what it calls “voluntary displacement” under a humanitarian pretext—a pretext it itself created.

Simultaneously, it is deliberately and systematically obstructing the transition to the second phase of the Trump agreement by continuing its policies of occupation, killing, and destruction under the guise of a ceasefire.

It is clear this arrangement serves its strategic interests and intersects with broader Western interests, with the ultimate result being the aborting of any chance of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, and keeping the Gaza Strip – as it has always been – a besieged enclave, which Israel exploits to achieve its political agenda and strengthen its internal cohesion, and turning it into a field laboratory in which various military weapons, biological tools and advanced technological techniques are tested, but with a reduction in the population, which allows it to continue what is strategically known as “managing the conflict” in the long term.

This article by Ismail Al Sharif was originally written in Arabic for the Addustour daily and published in Crossfirearabia.com.

Culture

Palestine Remembered

CrossFireArabia
December 18, 2025

Artist Maher Naji remembers Palestine in his own way.

Opinion

Making Arabic The Future Language!

CrossFireArabia
December 18, 2025

By Ali Abu Hablah

On December 18, 2025, the world celebrates World Arabic Language Day, an occasion that transcends mere celebration to touch upon the core of cultural and intellectual conflict in a rapidly changing world. This day commemorates the 1973 United Nations General Assembly resolution adopting Arabic as an official and working language of the UN system, in recognition of its historical and cultural significance.

This year’s celebration, organized by UNESCO at its headquarters in Paris, carries the theme:

“Innovative Pathways for Arabic: Policies and Practices for a More Inclusive Linguistic Future.” This theme reflects a growing awareness that the future of Arabic can no longer be secured through emotional rhetoric or historical glorification, but rather through public policies, educational strategies, and serious investment in technology and innovation.

Arabic is not simply a means of communication; it is the language of the Holy Quran, the language of the Prophet’s sayings (Hadith), and a repository of poetic, intellectual, and philosophical heritage. It is also a liturgical language for several Eastern churches. It is spoken today by more than 400 million people and is widespread throughout the Arab world and its surrounding regions, as well as in the diaspora across five continents. It is also one of the most influential languages in the history of world languages.

For centuries, Arabic played a pivotal role as the language of science, politics, and administration. It contributed to the transmission of Greek and Roman knowledge to Europe and served as a bridge for dialogue between cultures along land and sea trade routes. However, this historical leadership is now met with a worrying paradox: Decline of Arabic’s presence in scientific research, higher education, and digital content, in favor of other global languages.

This decline is due to a complex set of factors, most notably the dominance of foreign languages in universities, weak Arabization policies, a decline in translation activity, and the digital revolution, which Arabic has not adequately kept pace with. The widespread use of local dialects, especially through media and social media platforms, has also contributed to weakening the presence of Standard Arabic in the public sphere. This does not mean that the dialects themselves are responsible for the crisis, but rather that it reflects the absence of a balanced linguistic vision. In this context, the 2025 slogan acquires strategic significance, linking the future of Arabic to three fundamental paths:

First, language policies, as no language can be protected without clear legislation guaranteeing its presence in education, administration, and media.

Second, innovation and technology, given that the survival of a language today depends on its presence in artificial intelligence, software, search engines, and the digital content industry.

Third, linguistic inclusivity and equity, by making Arabic accessible to multilingual societies, supporting low-income groups, and promoting linguistic justice without compromising the integrity of the language or politicizing it ideologically.

UNESCO’s celebration of World Arabic Language Day constitutes a platform for global cultural dialogue, but at the same time, it places a heightened responsibility on Arab states and their educational and cultural institutions. The problem does not lie in a lack of international recognition, but rather in the absence of a comprehensive Arab linguistic project that restores Arabic to its role as a language of knowledge and production, not merely a language of heritage and celebration.

Ultimately, the Arabic language does not face an existential crisis, but rather a crisis of management and awareness. It must either be integrated into the core of the civilizational and developmental project, as a language of science, law, and technology, or it will remain confined to occasions and speeches. On World Arabic Language Day 2025, the question remains: Do we want Arabic to be the language of the past, or the language of the future?

Ali Abu Hablah originally wrote this article for the Arabic Addustour newspaper.

News

Lost ID Cards Forces Gazans Into Daily Nightmare

CrossFireArabia
December 18, 2025

Amid the rubble of homes and the ongoing displacement, an unprecedented humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza. The loss of personal documents, especially identity cards, has become widespread, affecting thousands of families, paralyzing the lives of survivors of the genocide, and subjecting them to a daily nightmare from which there is no escape.

Losing an identity card is no longer simply a matter of losing an official document; it has become an obstacle hindering access to aid, depriving the wounded of medical treatment, complicating the burial procedures for martyrs, and preventing even the simplest transactions, from purchasing a SIM card to registering newborns.

An Impossible Bank Account

Rehab Abu Samra, a survivor of the genocide, tried to open a bank account to purchase her daily necessities, but was met with refusal from the responsible employee because she did not possess her original identity card, despite presenting a substitute identification card.

Rehab told Quds Press, “I tried repeatedly to convince the employee to accept the identification card, but he refused because it wasn’t the original, and because the transaction was official and he couldn’t circumvent the requirements.”

She adds: “When we left our homes, we didn’t think about what we would face today. Our only concern was saving our lives and the lives of our children. Now we are living a nightmare with no solution except for government offices to reopen and civil services at the Ministry of Interior to resume.”

She points out that thousands of citizens have returned from banks without completing their transactions, whether to open new accounts or reactivate their frozen ones.

Job Opportunity Threatened with Loss

Nada Abu Shawish is experiencing the same suffering. She lost her ID card under the rubble of her home and received a temporary one. Despite being offered a temporary job, the Bank of Palestine refused to open an account for her to receive her salary.

Nada tells Quds Press: “I had an electronic copy of my ID on my phone, and I showed it to the employee, but he refused and insisted on the original, according to the established procedures.”

She explains that this condition is impossible to meet, as the civil registry offices are almost paralyzed, and the issuing centers are destroyed or unable to operate, while transactions pile up amidst power and internet outages.

She adds: “I was forced to authorize my husband to collect my salary on my behalf as a temporary solution that allows me to benefit from my employment contract until the ID card issuance crisis is resolved.”

Severe Technical and Logistical Crisis

Ismail al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, confirms that the civil department of the Ministry of Interior is currently unable to issue replacements for lost ID cards or renew them, despite the urgent need for them in daily transactions.

He says that the ID card issue is “one of the most complex issues” at present, due to technical and logistical reasons imposed by the occupation.

Al-Thawabta explains that the most prominent of these reasons are: Preventing the entry of the specialized technical ink used for printing ID cards, which has high security specifications; the unavailability of the paper used for the cards, which is classified as a prohibited material, similar to passport paper; the absence of the original, approved printing templates due to the disruption of supply lines; the lack of the ID card cover and the inner gel used in its production; and the shutdown of specialized printing presses after they were targeted during the aggression. This is on addition to the damage to the civil registry’s paper archive, which contains verification data and citizens’ photographs, accessing it is virtually impossible.

He emphasizes that these factors combined make the situation “completely intractable” and preclude any swift resolution to the crisis.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupying power—with American and European support — has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, including killing, starvation, destruction, displacement, and arbitrary arrests, ignoring international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt its actions.

This genocide has left more than 241,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands displaced and a famine that has claimed the lives of many, mostly children. Furthermore, it has resulted in widespread destruction and the erasure of most of the Gaza Strip’s cities and regions from the map.