121% Jump in Child Psychiatric Visits Shows Toll of Gaza War on Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel — Three years after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, researchers tracking the country's mental health say the strain on children and adults has deepened rather than eased, Al Jazeera reports.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza, launched after the attacks, has since killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to the report, and a United Nations commission of inquiry has concluded that the destruction there amounts to genocide. Inside Israel, the toll is less visible but, clinicians say, no less real.

How many Israelis report mental health struggles?

The National Mental Health Barometer, conducted jointly by Clalit Health Services' Research Institute and the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, found that one in five Israelis now reports severe difficulties with daily functioning tied to mental health, Al Jazeera reported. Experts told the outlet the figure reflects a population still absorbing the shock of the attacks, the war that followed, and repeated missile fire.

What is driving the rise in child psychiatric visits?

Separate research from Clalit, shared with Al Jazeera, recorded a 121 percent increase in psychiatric emergency visits among children and adolescents compared with the period before the war. The figure does not come with a breakdown of causes in the source material, but clinicians cited by the outlet link it to bereavement, displacement anxiety, and prolonged exposure to conflict.

What happened to the Ben Arye family?

At a webinar organized by Clalit Health Services for journalists to mark the anniversary, Irit Ben Arye described how her husband, Haim Ben Arye, a 52-year-old bus driver, drove south on Oct. 7, 2023, to help evacuate survivors from Kibbutz Be'eri, one of the communities attacked that day. He returned home crying, she said. About two weeks later, he died by suicide. The couple had been married 30 years and had eight children.

"You have to ask for help, if something is bothering you, if you're in pain, in the dark, you feel that you are alone. Cry, ask, break something. Make yourself noticed, make us notice that you are in pain." — Irit Ben Arye, recounting what she told her children after her husband's death

Is there a rise in suicides among soldiers?

Experts told Al Jazeera that suicides among soldiers have also increased since the war began, though the report does not provide a specific figure for that trend. The Ben Arye family's loss illustrates a pattern clinicians describe: trauma surfacing not only among those who fought but among those who responded to the attacks in other roles, including as rescuers and drivers.

How has the toll evolved since October 2023?

• Oct. 7, 2023 — Hamas-led fighters attack villages and army outposts in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people.
• Following weeks — Haim Ben Arye dies by suicide roughly two weeks after helping evacuate survivors from Kibbutz Be'eri.
• Since 2023 — Israel's assault on Gaza kills more than 74,000 Palestinians, per the report, as a UN commission of inquiry later finds the destruction amounts to genocide.
• Oct. 9, 2026 — On the third anniversary, Clalit Health Services and the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute disclose the national mental health barometer and the 121 percent rise in child psychiatric emergency visits.

Al Jazeera's report, drawn from the Clalit webinar and the mental health barometer, frames the figures as evidence that a society functioning on the surface is absorbing deeper, compounding psychological strain three years into the conflict.