{"id":268686,"date":"2026-02-01T12:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T12:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/268686\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T12:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T12:43:09","slug":"soldiers-deal-with-emotional-toll-of-recovering-ran-gvilis-body-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/268686\/","title":{"rendered":"soldiers deal with emotional toll of recovering Ran Gvili’s body in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLike hell,\u201d is how one soldier described being in the cemetery in the heart of Gaza during the heroic effort to locate the body of Ran Gvili<\/a>, the Yasam police officer who was killed on October 7 and whose body was abducted into Gaza. One by one, the soldiers opened dozens of graves and exposed hundreds of bodies. When Gvili\u2019s body was finally found, the circle was completed: 251 hostages, both dead and living had been brought home to Israel.But at the same moment when the radio announcement was made declaring that Gvili’s body had been located<\/a> \u2014 and soldiers on the ground broke into spontaneous songs of relief and pride \u2014 another front opened, no less complex: the battle for the mental well\u2011being of those who had pulled him from the earth. On Tuesday, the day after the operation ended, mental health professionals began processing talks with the soldiers who took part in that difficult and sensitive mission.<\/p>\n

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\"\u05d4\u05e8\u05de\u05d8\u05db"\u05dc<\/a>\"\u05d4\u05e8\u05de\u05d8\u05db"\u05dc<\/p>\n

IDF chief of staff salutes the late Ran Gvili<\/p>\n

(Photo: According to Section 27A of the Copyright Law)<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly after we finished the conversation with them did I realize that none of them referred to the element of threat to their lives within the event, even though the operation took place in an area that was still under threat,\u201d says Lt. Col. Meir Rubaha, morale and welfare officer for Reserve Division 252. \u201cThat shows how people cope with trauma in ways that go beyond anything we can estimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you prepare young soldiers for an awful mission like digging among hundreds of bodies?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe prepared for this mission for a relatively long period, knowing we were going to face smells and sights that could intensify the trauma. The more aware the soldiers are of the challenge they are going to face, the more we can reduce the element of surprise for them. People understood the significance of the mission, that they were doing something national and meaningful. That helps cope with the difficulties of everything that was in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Lt.<\/a>\"Lt.<\/p>\n

Lt. Col. Meir Rubaha, Lt. Col. (res.) Aliza Dolev and Lt. Col. Tal Ashkenazi: ‘He who does not develop post-trauma will grow from experience<\/p>\n

(Photo: Oz Moalem)<\/p>\n

Despite the importance of the mission, there is still that moment when a soldier or reservist stands over an open mass grave and his body reacts reflexively. How do you deal with that?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this operation we didn\u2019t see people who reacted in an extremely extreme way to what was there. I think this was sharpened very much during the period of fighting. People learned how to communicate with their bodies in states of stress and pressure. Therefore, when a soldier feels disgust or cannot be in a certain place at the moment, he knows how to manage his feelings, for example by moving a little aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubaha, a clinical social worker by profession, says that positioning mental health as a central factor in combat has evolved in this war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe military mental health system has grown very rapidly in response to the enormous scale of injury thanks to lots of proactivity. The past two years have taught us not to speak from a pulpit but to go into the field and be with the soldiers, especially after difficult events. The morale officers went into combat zones in cold and rain, under fire, and sacrificed a lot of themselves to care for our soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the brigade\u2019s morale officer was not with the troops on the ground during the excavation, Rubaha says he waited nearby, just over the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe morale officer is called to the field when necessary. There is a very, very important message in that. We believe in the resilience of our people and their ability to cope with the challenges, and that does not diminish our responsibility at all. We prepare the soldiers before every event, we train them so they will know how to provide initial support. If needed, we will be there the second they call us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what looks from the outside like efficient functioning can also be a type of dissociation, a detachment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny mentally healthy person who encounters such a situation reacts. You cannot face such difficult things and remain indifferent,” he says. “The criterion is whether the soldier maintains functioning that is appropriate to the mission. There is a natural response that fits the situation. If a person does not function because of what he experienced, that\u2019s the red flag when I step in to help him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\u05e8\u05df<\/a>\"\u05e8\u05df<\/p>\n

(Photo: According to Section 27A of the Copyright Law )<\/p>\n

After each such event, sessions are held to process the traumatic experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur desire, the mental health professionals, is to enter right into the depth of the matter knowing that it\u2019s important that our initial intervention be as close as possible,\u201d says Rubaha. \u201cBut you have to remember the situation. The soldiers inside the Gaza Strip sometimes haven\u2019t eaten or slept for days on end. I can\u2019t come talk to a soldier who tells me \u2018Brother, I\u2019m exhausted from fatigue.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The processing takes place in the field, inside the post itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work with them to create a positive narrative, addressing the fact that the soldier acted well and humanely, and that despite the difficulty he responded to the situation in an appropriate way. Each member of the team lays out his subjective experience, reconstructs what happened, and describes it in the present tense. Often this draws feedback from the peers alongside him: \u2018You were there, I was there, I remember you did such and such.\u2019 This completion is important, because part of the characteristics of trauma are black holes. The experience is so difficult that sometimes we fail to remember it. When someone who was there with you helps complete that, it is very significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the meeting we talk about trauma responses that may develop and explain when a red flag should be raised, because as time goes by it becomes harder to treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

What did the soldiers who uncovered hundreds of bodies at the cemetery where Gvili was found describe?<\/p>\n

\u201cMost spoke about the moment they realized they had found Rani. They described how suddenly a sense of relief descended on them. They were completely cut off from the world, focused on the mission, without phones, which further intensified the experience. Someone said: \u2018I felt as if I saw a very, very strong beam of light inside the awful thing I was in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"<\/a>\"<\/p>\n

Members of the Mental Health Medical Corps<\/p>\n

(Photo: Oz Mualem)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were people who said they felt like part of a movie scene, that they weren\u2019t really there. Others described the pieces of bodies scattered in the area like chocolate chip cookies. Only that way could they cope with the terrible environment they were in. There were also voices saying \u2018We could have done things differently to reduce the damage to the bodies and our exposure to them.\u2019 That may not align with the reality on the ground, but that place of guilt is part of their ability to process the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

You describe resilience, but from their words you can also hear a lot of psychological difficulty and shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue, and it\u2019s important to say that. We are all glad this important mission succeeded, but we must remember that there were people who found this very difficult. Their ability to cope came from mission, commitment and responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does one lift the unit immediately after the tension falls, after the body is loaded onto the helicopter and there is silence?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of laughter and dark humor in these situations. It\u2019s hard to survive without it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those accustomed to the difficult scenes like those seen last weekend in the cemetery are members of Unit 6017, the medical identification and forensic death mechanisms unit of the Medical Corps, which collects data in the field, including dental records and DNA samples, to verify the identities of the fallen. On the first day of the war, its members\u2014mostly dentists\u2014were deployed to Camp Shura, where they worked for long weeks identifying massacre victims. With the start of the ground maneuver, its teams entered deep into the Strip, equipped with advanced tools and computing systems that allowed them to compare field findings with the IDF database in real time.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years the unit has taken part in hostage recovery operations and helped identify numerous fallen soldiers. In the latest operation more than 20 volunteer dentists worked together for over 24 hours and scanned about 250 bodies until Ran Gvili was identified.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dentists went into the pits themselves and searched by hand for matches to the desired profile; no one else in the field knows how to do this work for them,\u201d says Lt. Col. Tal Ashkenazi, commander of the Medical Corps permanent institute, responsible for mental health support for regular personnel and their families. \u201cNothing in their medical studies prepared them for this mission\u2014identifying a body in enemy territory under conditions of risk and pressure\u2014and there\u2019s no way to practice or prepare for it in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The understanding that this unit required special and tailored mental health care came following a phone call Ashkenazi received from a former client\u2014a dentist who had been called to identify murdered bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately I understood that this population of doctors needs unique, ongoing support,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

The next day, Ashkenazi dispatched the mental health department\u2019s secret weapon to Shura: Col. (res.) Aliza Dolev, 67, a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, former commander of the Combat Reactions Unit and permanent institute, who served for decades in the IDF and in the past two years has escorted dozens of returning hostages on their way to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt compassion for her, knowing what awaited her there,\u201d Ashkenazi says, \u201cbut I knew those working there needed the best professional in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\u05d4\u05d4\u05ea\u05e8\u05d2\u05e9\u05d5\u05ea<\/a>\"\u05d4\u05d4\u05ea\u05e8\u05d2\u05e9\u05d5\u05ea<\/p>\n

Emotional reaction after the discovery of Ran Gvili’s body<\/p>\n

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)<\/p>\n

Since then, Dolev has been the listening ear for the unit\u2019s members, who consult with her not only on military matters but also on issues of relationships and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the dentists who worked in Shura, a child of Holocaust survivors, told me that in the Holocaust people came with names and were given numbers, whereas in Shura bodies came with numbers and were given names,\u201d Dolev says. \u201cThat tells the story of this unit in one sentence: they resolve doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside this noble mission, she says, there is much struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of them has things that remind him of the difficult experience he went through. Just as the stomach rises when eating food that\u2019s hard to digest, the psyche also takes time to digest hard things. They know not to panic and not to poison themselves more, for example by exposing themselves to gruesome videos or going to funerals.\u201d<\/p>\n

What keeps them in such a difficult and exhausting role?<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing they are doing an act of kindness, out of radical solidarity. You forget who you are and what you need and you\u2019re entirely devoted to this mission\u2014for the fallen, for their families, for the people. Before this war many of them didn\u2019t know how strong they were, and that in itself gives a lot of strength. Also the fact that they are part of a group experiencing the same things, communicating without speaking, strengthens them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against the backdrop of the sacred Israeli value of \u201cleaving no one behind\u201d and the blessed relief of the Gvili family, there is a darker side of it all. Studies on disaster identification teams have shown that rates of post\u2011trauma symptoms among those who work with bodies are significantly higher than among those who do not come into contact with human remains, and they found that odor is the strongest trigger for post\u2011traumatic symptoms.<\/p>\n

Soldiers in a squad who once searched by hand for remains of comrades killed when their APC hit an IED in the Philadelphi route in 2004 said that the event still haunts them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you pick up a piece of flesh you understand that behind it there’s a story, there\u2019s a family. These things never leave you,\u201d one soldier described.<\/p>\n

Exposure to the most graphic products of death can produce not only post\u2011traumatic stress, but also moral injury \u2014 a sense of guilt or violation of ethical codes that soldiers were raised to uphold, even when the mission was operationally justified. A soldier who suffers from such injury will feel guilt, shame and disgust.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoral injury is something that occupies us greatly today,\u201d says Rubaha. \u201cWe see it more in late reactions, and treating it requires deeper engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preventing and treating trauma does not end in the field\u2014it continues for weeks and months and extends into the home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk to them about transitional rites, teach them mindfulness and breathing, how to pause, listen to music before they get home\u2014leave the hard day behind,\u201d says Dolev.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that develops after trauma is aversion to certain smells, because memory and smell centers are very close in the brain,\u201d says Rubaha. \u201cThe natural tendency is to avoid those smells as much as possible, but avoidance is what fuels later mental illness, so we try to expose the patient to the things that challenge him as much as possible. If it\u2019s the smell of grilled meat, we\u2019ll work to bring him to a place where he can eat the steak he once loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the difficult experiences and reactions, experts say most soldiers exposed to traumatic events will be able to move forward in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only will they be okay, they will grow from what they went through. Trauma is such a harsh event that you cannot remain where you were before it. If you don\u2019t develop mental illness as a result, you will certainly develop resilience and support. Every team talk should end with those messages,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Maybe they will be better fighters \u2014 the question is whether their civilian lives afterward will be any less difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the fact that you confronted such hard things demands growth; it grows you and forces you to develop and become mentally stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is something called post\u2011traumatic growth,\u201d says Dolev. \u201cIn one of the processing sessions we ask the fighters to write a letter to their grandchild. They are young, far from grandchildren, but they embrace this exercise wholeheartedly because it gives them horizons and a sense of continuity. I\u2019ve done hundreds of processing sessions with dozens of different groups. For everyone two sentences repeat themselves: \u2018There\u2019s no way such a thing happened and I wasn\u2019t there,\u2019 and \u2018I became a better person.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLike hell,\u201d is how one soldier described being in the cemetery in the heart of Gaza during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-268686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}