The cost of the war in Israel is no longer measured by the number of dead and wounded or the size of military spending alone. An article by Gideon Lev, science correspondent for Haaretz newspaper, reveals that the war has ignited widespread psychological disturbances that have reached a clinical level among large segments of Israelis.
The writer begins his article with a striking reference: On every occasion that the Israelis call “Independence Day” (the Nakba), the Central Bureau of Statistics publishes the population number, but the absent figure is the number of Israelis suffering from severe psychological disorders. He suggests that the talk is about “millions.” Then he defines the summary of the scene with a direct statement: “Since October 7, 2023, Israel has become a troubled state.”
On every occasion that the Israelis call “Independence Day” (the Nakba), the Central Bureau of Statistics publishes the population number, but the missing number is the number of Israelis suffering from severe psychological disorders.
Mass trauma
The article is based on a series of studies and interviews with researchers from Israeli and American universities and centers. Professor Eyal Kalantrov, a psychologist at the Hebrew University who specializes in obsessive-compulsive disorder, says that Israel is approaching a situation in which the majority of the population now stands on the side of the affected, not on the side of the powerful.
Read also
list of 2 itemsend of list
The seriousness of the number is highlighted in his study of residents of the Gaza Strip, where it was found that about a third of them are at high risk of developing obsessive-compulsive disorder, while the percentage in a control group that was not directly exposed to trauma was 7%, a percentage that Kalantrov described as amazing, compared to a global rate that is usually less than 2%.
Tense body
The special value of the article is that it does not limit itself to questionnaires, but rather goes to physiological indicators that measure the effect of war on the body itself.
Professor Ariel Koshmaru, from the Department of Biotechnology Engineering at Ben Gurion University, monitored wastewater for stress hormones, caffeine, nicotine, and anxiety medications.
Compared to the baseline in September 2023, caffeine levels in wastewater rose by about 425%, cigarette consumption doubled, while levels of cortisol, a hormone linked to stress, blood pressure and heart damage, rose by about 50%.
Therefore, Koshmaru says, “the response to the events was profound and physiological, and not just a change in habits.”
These numbers are important because they move the crisis from the level of public feeling to the level of biometrics. Society does not just say that it is stressed, but the war also leaves its mark on sleep, consumption, and hormones.
Questionnaires supported these indicators, as they showed that between 20% and 30% of respondents showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, linking the level of psychological distress to indicators of stress in wastewater.
The writer describes Israeli society as having itself become an open laboratory for measuring the psychological impact of war.
Between 20% and 30% of respondents had post-traumatic stress symptoms
Clinical numbers
Regarding post-traumatic stress disorder, the article is based on Professor Yuval Neria of Columbia University, and on a study led by Professor Yossi Levy Balaz, head of the Lior Tsavati Center for the Study of Suicidal Tendencies and Psychological Pain at the University of Haifa, where the study began about a month before the war to examine the impact of the division over the “judicial coup” led by the Netanyahu government.
The study found that 16% of the population had symptoms of PTSD before October 7.
A month after the attack, the percentage jumped to 29%, and after two years it stabilized around 20%. Levi Blaz comments that “Israel entered the war in a very bad state,” and that the 20% rate remains much higher than the acceptable rate in industrialized countries, which ranges between 5% and 6%.
95% of participants reported at least one symptom of trauma-related psychological distress
Professor Yael Lahav, head of the Trauma Research Laboratory at Tel Aviv University, reinforces this picture with a recent study conducted in late March on a representative sample. 95% of participants reported at least one symptom of trauma-related psychological distress, while 21% showed symptoms above the clinical threshold, more than double the rate recorded before October 7.
Lahav describes this as a “very important red flag,” warning that waiting lists for treatment are unusually long, amid a severe shortage of therapists specializing in psychological trauma.
Extended cost
The article does not stop at psychological diagnosis, but rather links it to the economic and social cost. The Natal Association, concerned with trauma victims, estimated the economic damage resulting from widespread exposure to psychological trauma at about 100 billion shekels annually.
Dr. Yifat Reuveni, director of research at the association and an economist, says that these calculations are “very conservative,” and that subsequent data indicate that the actual cost will be higher.
The article concludes that the war did not produce a passing psychological crisis, but rather pushed Israeli society into a state of collective, measurable trauma: obsessive-compulsive disorder higher than global rates, post-traumatic stress disorder at levels exceeding those of industrialized countries, a huge jump in indicators of stress within sewage, a widespread rise in addiction and insomnia, and an economic cost that may reach half a trillion shekels within five years.
