Rising Cases of the Occupation Army’s Denial of Its Casualties

In recent days, it has become noticeable that the occupation army has been ignoring the number of its soldiers who were killed in battles in Gaza or through suicide due to the psychological trauma they experienced during their participation in genocidal crimes against the people of Gaza.

Looking back at the army’s records published on its official account for the deceased, the occupation army’s non-recognition of fighter pilot Asaf Dagan, a former member of the paratroopers and the ultra-secret 8200 intelligence unit, stands out. The army refused to hold a military funeral after his suicide.

The occupation army did not inform his family as usual about his suicide, nor did it consent to a military funeral or even publish his picture on the army’s official website as one of its casualties.

This decision forced his family to keep his body at Rambam Hospital in protest, pending the army’s recognition of him as a military service casualty and granting him the corresponding privileges.

Similarly, the army completely ignored one of the soldiers killed in battles at the Jabaliya camp after he fell into a trap set by Al-Qassam Brigades, leaving his name and picture off the army’s official page.

The deceased is Sergeant Shenior Cohen from the Givati Brigade, which the occupation had recently thrust into Jabaliya. He was killed along with two others by an explosive device inside a house. While the army acknowledged the other two, Cohen was utterly disregarded.

Cohen, a member of the extremist Hasidic Western Jews, joined the occupation army after Operation Aqsa Flood and served in the Givati infantry brigade. Settler accounts from Yitzhar, built on lands from Nablus in the West Bank, mentioned that his body inaugurated the military cemetery in the settlement.

Additionally, there was the suicide of soldier Santiago Ovadia Gonzalez, a fighter in the Nahal Brigade, who isolated himself and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following the massacres he participated in in the Gaza Strip over the past year.

As with his predecessors, the occupation army did not recognize him. Hebrew accounts stated that this soldier, a Jew from Venezuela, arrived in the occupation state in 2017, began his military service, and lived alone without his family.

Following the scandal of the army’s refusal to acknowledge him, and rising calls to participate in his funeral, the army arranged a non-public, unofficial funeral with limited participation, yet continued to deny him recognition as a casualty of military service, nor did it list him on its official page for the deceased.

It is noted that the number of occupation casualties disclosed so far has reached 780, but the scandal emerged when Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid revealed that the death toll of the occupation army had reached 900, amid reports suggesting the numbers are higher and are being suppressed.

Many journalistic investigations have revealed that the occupation army used mercenaries in the ground aggression on the Gaza Strip, resulting in many of their deaths, in addition to confirmations from the spokesperson for Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, in several speeches, on having evidence of mercenaries fighting in Gaza.