Dmitry Shapiro, 34, from Kiryat Malakhi, a reservist tank crewman, was found dead Thursday at the Paratroopers Monument site near Beit Elazari in central Israel. Before taking his own life, he left a farewell letter to his wife.
“He was a family man, a devoted husband. He loved his children — a four-and-a-half-year-old boy and a one-and-a-half-year-old girl,” his brother-in-law Yoav told ynet. “During his reserve duty, there were signs of losing control, escapism and depression. And in the end, what happened happened.”
According to Yoav, Shapiro had served in Gaza from the start of the war and was released from reserve duty only in August. “He lost it there,” he said. “My sister, his wife, kept asking him to get help, and in the letter he left, he wrote that he didn’t do it.”
“Reservists went to fight, gave everything they had, and were supposed to come home,” Yoav said. “But some come back shattered. The state treats it as if they’ve returned to normal life, but the reality is different. He came back mentally broken. He saw death and injuries that destroyed his soul. That’s the price of war. As far as the army is concerned, if you came home with a pulse, everything’s fine. But in this case — and I assume in many others — they come back broken, ticking time bombs.”
A new report by the Knesset Research and Information Center revealed a sharp rise in suicides and suicide attempts among IDF soldiers, particularly since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7, 2023. Between January 2024 and July 2025, 279 soldiers attempted suicide. For every soldier who died by suicide, seven more attempted but survived.
The data include only soldiers who were on active duty at the time — whether in regular service, career service or reserves — and do not include those who took their lives after discharge, even if it occurred shortly thereafter.
Since 2023, the number of reservists who have died by suicide has risen significantly. In 2023, 17 soldiers took their lives — five of them reservists. In 2024, 20 soldiers died by suicide — 11 of them reservists. In the first half of 2025 (through July), 16 soldiers died by suicide — seven of them reservists.