The October war of 2023 led to a sharp increase in the need for mental health services on the part of the general population and especially for specific groups within it, among them persons injured by the Hammas attack or dislocated as a result of that attack and the subsequent war, families whose homes were damaged from rocket fire and soldiers suffering from post-trauma. The widespread distress occurred at a time when Israel’s public mental health services had been suffering for years from a chronic shortage of personnel, unfilled positions and, as a result, the general inaccessability of public mental health services.

What led the government to allocate additional funds exclusively to resilience centers in the West Bank, despite data suggesting a higher demand for strengthening resilience centers in the south due to an increased number of traumatic stress victims?

While attention was focused on coronavirus departments and on vaccinations, one aspect of the epidemic remained at the margins of public attention: mental health.