Daily Digest Online

At a farm in central Israel, a former soldier feels the cold skin of a snake wrapped around his forearm. For a moment, the world shrinks. The noise of a passing drone, a helicopter in the distance—the triggers for flashbacks to Gaza—fade into the background. "I'm here with the snake right now," he says. It is the only thing that brings him peace. This is the new frontline of Israel's longest war—one not against Hamas, but against an enemy within: a spiraling mental health crisis that is claiming the lives of Israeli soldiers not with bullets, but through suicide. The death of Tomas Adzgauskas, a Lithuanian-Israeli sniper commander who took his own life after confessing to acts he "cannot be forgiven" for, is a stark, individual tragedy in a devastating national pattern. A Crisis in Numbers The data paints a picture of an army under profound psychological strain. A report by Israel's Knesset Research and Information Cen...

Tomas Adzgauskas, a Lithuanian-Israeli soldier who fought in Gaza, has died by suicide. In a final, harrowing social media post, he wrote of being haunted by "a demon" since the October 7th attacks and of committing acts for which he could find no forgiveness. A former Israeli soldier has died by suicide after publishing an anguished final message describing the profound psychological trauma he suffered following his military service in the Gaza Strip. Tomas Adzgauskas, a Lithuanian-born Israeli citizen who served as a commander in an elite sniper unit, was found dead on Friday, December 5. Prior to his death, he posted a lengthy and deeply personal confession on his Facebook account, which has since circulated internationally. In the post, Adzgauskas directly linked his severe mental distress to the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the ongoing war. "October 7, the date that ruined my life and destroyed everything I was...