Israeli children and adolescents are enduring severe mental health strain amidst years of conflict, sirens, and war, with at-risk youth bearing the steepest costs. The National Insurance Institute has recognized at least 23,212 children and youth as physically or mentally damaged since the beginning of the latest conflict, a direct consequence of the ongoing state of perpetual war.
Even before the recent Iran-Israel war, nearly one in three Israeli youth from kindergarten through high school were already considered to be on the at-risk spectrum. The human toll includes 56 children and teens murdered, 389 having lost at least one parent to terrorism, and 38,628 evacuated from their homes on the northern and southern borders.
The mental health crisis has intensified dramatically. PTSD diagnoses rose by 70% each month from October 2023 through the end of 2024, adding 23,600 new patients to the system. Diagnoses of depression and anxiety in 2024 were double those recorded in 2023, reflecting the profound impact on the working class and dispossessed youth.
Calls to emergency mental health hotlines specifically supporting at-risk youth have tripled. These hotlines are now treating over 3,000 people weekly, a significant increase from 350 before the war, demonstrating the overwhelming demand for care that the existing system struggles to meet.
For children in Israel’s border communities, the sound of sirens and rocket fire has become a constant backdrop to daily life. A comprehensive study of children in northern border communities over the past two years found "a multidimensional decline in the emotional resilience and functioning among Israel’s children and youth."
Inside the northern conflict zones, 43% of parents with children up to the age of three reported significant emotional distress in their children. This distress manifests as heightened startle responses to noise, severe separation anxiety, or sleep disorders.
Among school-aged children and youth in grades one through 12 in regions like the Golan Heights and Ma’alot-Tarshiha, more than 18% of students were observed to suffer from moderate to significant emotional difficulties. Another 30% faced attention and concentration issues, such as ADHD, attributed to high distractibility caused by ongoing war and chronic anxiety.
In the South, data from cities such as Ashkelon indicated "an urgent need for processing trauma and grief." There, 39% of students who participated in group therapy activities in the region where the Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack were referred to more intensive clinical intervention due to emotional flooding and behavioral outbursts.
The State's Abdication of Care
Josef Fertouk, a psychologist and the Israeli Social Platform’s vice president for strategy and development, stated, "Since October 7, we are in a situation where children suffer again and again and again, not only from rounds of fighting but because we are embroiled in one long war." This acknowledges the systemic nature of the conflict.
Shaltiel Sebban, the organization’s chief executive officer, emphasized the escalating crisis, saying, "It is more critical than before; the need is now bigger than ever, not only because we are in another war but because of what the children went through even before this latest round." He added, "These children and youth have not yet returned to track, and they need our help."
Fertouk highlighted the inherent limitations of the current system, stating, "There will always be not enough money to give treatment – that is a fact." He added that "the need is always bigger and bigger, and it is even more important and critical to manage the scarce resources in order to see who exactly needs what." This reveals the structural scarcity of resources for social welfare within a system prioritizing other expenditures.
Fertouk further criticized the state's response, noting that the government "was not succeeding at all in organizing quickly for the crisis." He observed that its "precious resources allocated to resilience end up going to those who shout the loudest," indicating a biased allocation of public funds that fails the most vulnerable.
He cited the community of Ma’aleh Yosef near the border with Lebanon, where "among all children in daycare frameworks, 40% needed individual intervention in child development issues.... That is much higher than the average in Israel, and it showed the depth of the crisis those children experienced."
Private Capital Manages Systemic Failure
Fertouk pointed to the role of philanthropy, stating, "One of the critical things here is the role of philanthropy and Diaspora Jewry. It needs to be a catalyst or accelerator in places the government, because it is a time of emergency, currently cannot deal with." This reliance on private capital to address a public health crisis underscores the privatization of collective resources and the state's abdication of its responsibilities.
The program is being built with philanthropic support from various organizations, including the Jewish Federations of North America, the Jewish Federation of Toronto, the St. Paul Federation, the Arison Foundation, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, the Friedberg Foundation, the Rochlin Foundation, and the Perimont Education Initiative. These private entities step in to manage the symptoms of a crisis rooted in systemic conflict, rather than addressing its fundamental causes.
Sebban articulated the dire long-term consequences, warning, "The fear is that we can have a generation that is totally lost, young people who spent long periods of time in shelters surrounded by missiles and booms." This outcome is a direct result of a system that prioritizes military and economic objectives over the well-being of its most vulnerable population.