'There are many suicides': Emotional testimonies on mental health after Oct 7 attack
'We won't know for years. People report sexual abuse after decades' testifies Dr. Tzvia Zeligman on efforts at hospitals to provide treatment after the attack
Israel's parliament, the Knesset, convened a health committee on Monday morning to discuss the mental health response to the terror attack victims and victims of sexual assault on the horrific October 7 massacres led by the terrorist organization Hamas.
"Do you know how many people have already committed suicide since October 7? People are unusually suicidal. There are many suicides," director of the the Lotem Center for Treatment of Sexual Trauma at he Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Dr. Tzvia Zeligman, told the committee.
"We treat the victims of October 7 and all the victims of the war. Women, men, children. There is an expectation to gather numbers, testimonies and information from all kinds of sources. The hospitals were asked 'Were they attacked or were they not attacked?' We won't know for years. People report sexual abuse after decades,” Dr. Zeligman testified.
“They continue to live life as if it's nothing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't destroy their lives, or that of their children and their environment,” she explained.
"People will do the deed and jump from one hotel or another. I want to save the people and this is your duty as a country," a resident of the southern Israeli city of Sderot, who had previously been sexually abused, testified at the health committee.
The Israeli lawmaker, from the Jewish Power party, Almog Cohen testified at another committee hearing that he himself had started taking care of his mental health, after volunteering for reserve duty following the horrific attack, stating "it's not a weakness, it's a strength."