Trauma unveiled: Insights into Israeli society post-October 7

Galia Sopher from Kibbutz Mefalsim, near Gaza, began the day on October 7 with a kibbutz tradition with her two daughters, Emily and Gaya. “There is a tradition that on the weekend of the Sukkot holiday, we go outside the kibbutz and into the fields and go camping,” she said. However, what started as a peaceful October 6 connection to nature quickly transformed into an October 7 of a far different reality. “On October 7, I woke up with my girls in a tent to non-stop bombing. It caught us in a place where there is no safety room. I jumped on top of my girls, age six and four now. I called my husband, Amitai, but couldn’t get hold of him, as he was in the safe room. That scared me,” she recounted.

She carried her two girls, one in each arm, as they were light. She saw a member of the kibbutz’s response team who was offering rides, and she rushed to him to be escorted back to the kibbutz. As soon as she returned, reunited with her husband, she noticed that the electricity was out. “We heard the firing, some quite close, some quite far. ‘That doesn’t sound like usual or from our soldiers,’” she said. Staying in their reinforced room for over twenty-two hours, the family was eventually evacuated in the middle of the night of October 8. “We saw the burnt cars and dead bodies, an apocalypse,” she reflected as she left her home under armed guard.

Now living in a hotel in Herzliya, she said that her job as a daycare teacher keeps her going. “I look at the toddlers; they are so innocent. I love to hug them, to be with them. Their energy warms my heart.”

Experiencing trauma first hand

The story of Galia is not unique to a society shaped by trauma. Dr. Miriam Fink Lavi, mental health regional manager at Leumit Health Care Services, has seen a major uptick in cases and stories of severe trauma. Her strategy was to open mental health clinics inside the places where trauma sufferers live so that services are accessible. “We know that the first weeks after severe trauma is critical to receive treatment. Many families experienced trauma together, so we have teams helping the whole family,” she said. “People could be walking their dogs and found themselves in the middle of a terrorist onslaught. Acute stress was the first reaction we saw [in people]. People cannot sleep or go out of their room, crying all the time… Our reaction was to lessen the symptoms.”

Israeli society as a whole went through different forms of trauma, with first-hand victims more likely to develop trauma disorders. The reason is that many who experienced direct trauma are still processing what they went through and are still dealing with all the changes, with little stability in their lives. “The situation is full of uncertainty for them. They are not living at home. Family structures went through severe changes… children are not going to normal school… fathers are in the army… many of the women that are giving birth during this period are bringing up infants on their own, away from the support they normally have. There are a lot of behavioral problems and regressions, especially in special needs children, particularly individuals with ADHD and ASD. It is very hard for the parents to cope,” she said.

Lack of securityNadav Peretz, a social worker and director of the Resilience Center at the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, has been instrumental in assisting community members in coping with the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. He emphasizes that the lack of security significantly exacerbates trauma for residents. While many express a desire to return home, personal security concerns complicate decision-making processes.

“People yearn for the familiarity and tranquility of their homes. Nobody wants to live as a refugee. However, simultaneously, there is a collective longing for a change in reality, for the restoration of the fundamental aspect of personal security, allowing individuals to feel safe in their own communities.”

The historical context in the Gaza envelope area has further heightened the impact of the October 7 events on residents’ sense of personal safety.

“It’s important to recognize that people respond differently to trauma, and we are still amidst this ongoing war. We’ve observed a significant increase in individuals seeking therapy, with many requesting family, couples, and children’s therapy, as well as group interventions. Some individuals take on personal and community responsibilities by volunteering, while others are still grappling with their emotions and may seek assistance in the coming months,” he explained.

Peretz is currently focused on providing mental health services to residents of the regional council and understanding their hesitation to return home.

“We offer mental health support in various settings, whether it’s at social centers, hotels, or online, through one-on-one sessions, group retreats, and workshops. My hope is that our community can recover at the individual and communal levels.”

Themes in Israeli trauma

Prof. Danny Horesh, head of the Clinical Psychology Program and head of the Trauma and Stress Research Lab at Bar-Ilan University, has been watching the situation unfold on a societal level. Acknowledging that the situation is still fresh, with a lack of clinical psychological studies, he has seen both a uniqueness to Israeli trauma and trends in the psychological state that Israelis face.

The uniqueness to trauma in Israel is indeed unique and even historic because there are multiple sources of trauma affecting society at the same time. They include a direct massacre as took place on October 7; the war that followed; a large number of domestic refugees from the South and the North who have lost their homes (numbering over 100,000); soldiers in active and reserve duty; and the situation of Israeli hostages. Due to Israel’s small size geographically, with a home front being close to the battlefront, and also due to the country’s tight-knit structure where everyone knows someone who has been affected, this impacts the country in unprecedented ways, especially compared to other war zones such as Ukraine and the United States on September 11. “We have a multi-layered trauma in Israel right now. There are multiple layers and multiple carriers of trauma. We have so many people and so many levels carrying aspects in such a small country. This is unique and unprecedented,” he said.

As a result, many people in Israel are suffering from some form of PTSD. Horesh describes four clusters of symptoms:

1. Intrusive memories: These come in the form of flashbacks, feelings, memories, and thoughts that are penetrating one’s mind about the trauma without control.
2. Avoidance: Trying to avoid thinking about, talking about, or revisiting the trauma.
3. Hyperarousal: Hyper-vigilance; more sensitive to the environment, extra suspicious of surroundings.
4. Guilt: In the form of shame.

In addition to the PTSD symptoms, there is grief. Today in Israel, there is a powerful combination of trauma and grief. “We are a grieving society since October 7”, Horesh noted. “Having this combination is relatively unique. There is a lot of sadness; but a lot of the grief and sadness is relatable to violent events. As time unfolds, we will see more examples of this.”

Since the onset of the war, Horesh has noted from his observations that Israeli society has undergone two phases of trauma. 

1. Shock phase: “October and November was the shock phase. We woke up every morning and thought to ourselves, ‘Did this really happen?’ ‘I cannot believe this,’” said Horesh. As the first month is also tied heavily to emotion, it is also called the digestion phase.
2. Deep grief phase: After one or two months, a second phase began, one that is characterized by heaviness and a powerful sense of uncertainty, which most of the Israeli population is feeling now to some degree. 

However, while there are general observations and tendencies, the trajectory of trauma isn’t uniform. Trauma victims have a complicated trajectory over time. “This [trajectory of trauma] isn’t unique to Israeli society. There will be heterogeneity to how people’s reactions will be. You will have people who experience a lot of their stresses in the beginning and then will recover. You will have people who will appear to cope in the beginning but then have a delayed onset. You will have people who will remain chronically distressed all the time. And you will have people who will be resilient all the time. We aren’t at the post-traumatic phase, for trauma is still happening. We still have trauma news every day.”

Exacerbating the trauma is an Israeli system that for many years has neglected mental health, with a severe shortage of professionals in the public sector and long waiting lines. “It is not acceptable that a victim of trauma from October 7 would need to wait a year for treatment,” Horesh said, adding that the situation is a wake-up call, and various initiatives have been attempted.

He remarked, however, that despite the negative wave of trauma faced by large swaths of Israel’s population, many are also resilient, showing a hopeful outcome. “Many people outside of Israel have noted not only the trauma but also the resilience of Israelis,” he said. This is important to note in any overall analysis of the situation.

Hopeful prognosis

Prof. Sarah Freedman, head of the Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University, believes that while many Israelis have experienced acute stress, the prognosis is hopeful in the long run.“Most of us through our lifetimes deal with stress, especially in Israel, but most of us are also good at coping with this kind of stress, and most won’t develop clinical PTSD. It is important to note it is an unusual response,” she said.

She sees that many individuals are finding active ways to cope with their environment and many factors that are unique to Israel, such as a strong sense of community, are mitigating some of the factors. “There are many things that happen in Israel specifically that relieve some of the effects… such as one out of every two individuals going out to volunteer, and the sense of community which is very protective.”

She also believes that, compared to other traumatic experiences in the past, Israeli health services know a lot more about PTSD and can provide relevant treatment to victims. “We know more than we ever have about the importance of mental health. It is much easier to access help, and those things will be very useful in making sure that the prognosis is more productive to ensure that whoever needs therapy will get it.” 

However, the help is not absolute, and society will need to be proactive. “It is important for people who need help to seek it and for society to provide it,” she said.■