Suicide attempts increasing among Israeli soldiers

The rate of suicide attempts is high among Israeli soldiers, media reports said, adding that Tel Aviv is seeking hard to hide the cause and the relevant figures from public eye. The Israeli regime has been hiding the real cause of its soldiers' suicide attempts and their increasing rate, the Arabic-language Al-Sharq Al-Jadid news website reported. “An important cause of the high suicide rates among the Israeli soldiers is the measures taken by their commanders,” Military Expert Vasef Ariqat told Al-Sharq Al-Jadid on Tuesday. He further stated that the figures will even rise to much higher numbers after the Israeli army starts its plan for recruiting mercenaries from European countries. Most of the military personnel who committed suicide have been working for long working hours and they were aged between 18 to 21 while 40 percent of them committed suicide in the first year of their military service. Last year, six suicides were of soldiers doing their compulsory military service and one was a major in the standing army. Five used a gun they had been issued and two hanged themselves.