(JEWISH) Viral statistics about Nova survivors' suicides are unsubstantiated. But everyone agrees they're in crisis. [View all]

[Behind the Aegis]

Eyal Golan sat at a table flanked by two citrus trees in his parents’ garden in the pastoral community of Porat – a makeshift office that has become, reluctantly, his command center. Here, he has conducted dozens of media interviews about his sister Shirel, who died by suicide at the family home on her 22nd birthday.

Shirel and her boyfriend Adi Gilad were among the thousands of festival goers who fled the Nova music festival as Hamas terrorists began massacring revelers on Oct. 7, 2023. Of around 4,000 attendees, 364 were killed and several dozen taken hostage to Gaza. Those who survived witnessed extreme violence, including rape and mutilation, and experienced intense trauma after waiting hours, in many cases, for rescue. The Golan family blames the government for not doing enough to prevent his sister’s death, which came after a battle with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Initially, Golan wrestled with keeping up the media blitz during shiva, the traditional Jewish mourning period, but his psychologist reassured him that by speaking out, he was channeling his grief into purpose.

“I will do everything to be her voice and the voice of her friends who are still living,” he said.

Those friends, by all accounts, are still struggling more than a year after Israel’s deadliest day. While viral reports of dozens of suicides among Nova survivors are unsubstantiated, survivors, their families and mental health advocates all say that Israel is facing a crisis when it comes to the mental health of those who made it out of Nova’s killing fields.

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