An IDF combat reservist was found dead Thursday in the Switzerland Forest area near Teverya, marking the latest apparent suicide in a military increasingly grappling with an alarming rise in such cases.

The 28-year-old officer, a Teverya resident, served in the IDF’s 99th Division — a unit active in the Gaza Strip — and was part of a newly formed combat team that had participated in recent fighting. The Military Police Criminal Investigation Division has opened an investigation, with findings to be forwarded to the Military Advocate General’s Office.

In a statement, the IDF expressed condolences, saying it “shares in the family’s grief” and will continue to provide support.

The reservist’s death brings the number of apparent military suicides so far this year to 17. The statistics, revealed only last week after months of the IDF withholding the figures, show 21 suicides in 2024, 17 in 2023, and 14 in 2022. Until now, the military had insisted on releasing such data only at year’s end.

The disclosure has fueled growing outrage from veterans and bereaved families, culminating in a tense scene at the Knesset’s National Security Committee on Wednesday. Several IDF veterans disrupted the meeting, demanding urgent action.

“Fifty-seven fighters commit suicide — no one here cares!” one veteran shouted at committee members. “Every day someone kills himself. Stop everything — my brothers are dying. It could be your child.”

The veteran went on to condemn what he described as a culture of disregard for soldiers struggling after service:

“Soldiers who fall — right-wing, left-wing, Druze — we’re all the same. How are we invisible out there? If I didn’t have both my legs, would you look at me differently? You don’t understand what we go through. My partner, who was the most combat-ready soldier in the world, killed himself. What’s written on his grave? ‘Fell in the line of duty.’ But if a soldier takes a bullet and dies after eight months in the hospital, he’s ‘fallen in battle’ because he’s a fighter. So we, the invisible ones who were wounded — are we not considered fallen in battle? It starts with this disregard, with the fact you don’t care. You sit here talking nonsense while soldiers are killing themselves.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)