"How did we not notice?": Uriel fought in Gaza and took his own life, his friends from the Nahal Brigade speak out

They entered the room like a storm. 11 young, strong, and funny men with summer tans and takeout bags in their hands. Anyone who sees them like this would find it hard to imagine the weight of the burden they carry on their backs. These are the fighters of the "Retek" platoon in the operational company of the 932nd Battalion of the Nahal Brigade — a group that went through a war together and lost two of its friends in the battles in Gaza. Last week, this group lost another friend, Uriel Gethon, who took his own life after a difficult struggle with PTSD that erupted after his service. "He had very big ambitions for this life."

They started their journey in August 2021. 24 fighters who did everything together, and today this formation is missing members. "We entered in the first wave into Gaza, we were the most experienced and we came with an atmosphere of 'let's devour'," Eran says and adds, "And we devoured." For 5 months they fought with determination and "already felt at home in Gaza," according to them.

"And somehow time passed and nothing happened to us," Liad says. "I felt it didn't make sense, statistically. I was afraid to enter every time anew, fearing that this time would be the time." And then it happened. Avraham Ubgan, their teammate, fell in a face-to-face encounter. "We didn't talk about this scenario, about what happens if we die?" Dror says, "One evening I sat down to write a farewell letter. Avraham saw me and laughed, 'What's wrong with you, Bohadana?! Stop, you will return!'"

They tried to strengthen each other, but very quickly another blow came. Lior Raviv, their teammate, also fell in a face-to-face encounter. "We had already experienced destruction, we didn't believe there would also be a destruction of a second home," says Siri, "Why is this happening to us again?! We panicked, we understood that everything could happen." Liam, the platoon commander, concludes: "We all lived a reality where we could die at any moment." Alon adds: "I was convinced that I was going to die, I was literally sure, and I came to terms with it."

Two years have passed since then. Those same 22 young men managed to finish their service, grow their hair out, and fly to South America. But in the last week, this team experienced another loss, when Uriel Gethon, the team's machine gunner and, according to them, also "the glue of the group," experienced a PTSD attack, following his service experiences, which led him to take his own life. Uriel's loss left no room for doubt: there is no way to escape the events they went through, even if they fly to the other end of the world.

"Uriel was a perfect balance between silliness and action and professionalism. A winning combination," says Liam. "On one hand, he was funny and easygoing, on the other hand, the first one I would assign to any mission, I trusted him with my eyes closed," they agree. "Uriel was not a big talker, but had a strong presence. He was a great listener. For long hours on guard duty, only I would talk, and he would ask and be interested," says Siri.

The stories about Uriel are endless. "When we went up to the line, the team stopped running, it drove me crazy," Liam recalls, "So I promised whoever runs 10 km — will go home earlier." "And still no one would run," they laugh and add, "Except for Uriel. Uriel was so honest. He didn't feel comfortable going home alone, so he took others' phones and ran with them."

Noam, the squad commander and Uriel's partner, describes a fighter who aspired to be prepared for every incident: "He looked critically at the world to make it better. And always felt a lot of responsibility for what was happening around him." "He felt guilty, and would beat himself up for not being physically with Lior when it happened to him. That he had much more to talk about with Avraham," Liam says, "He took it upon himself, as if he was the one who shot them."

Uriel did not lay these feelings out to his surroundings. "We thought he was working for the Shin Bet," Daniel says. Uriel always did more than he would talk: "He wanted to keep the image of the strong one in our eyes and in the eyes of his family. He said 'I know they are having a hard time too, if they see me breaking it will break them even more,'" Liam says. Two weeks before his death, at a processing workshop, Uriel spoke in a discussion circle: "He seemed very confused, but while doing so giggled and smiled... In retrospect, I think he just didn't find words for his feelings."

And then I ask, "Does anyone here feel a sense of guilt?" And a deafening silence floods the space. Avi, the squad commander and the team's medic, says in a brave and vulnerable moment: "Who can live with the feeling that he killed his friend?"

And so, one after another, the friends begin to fall apart. "A feeling of failure," says Alon sadly. "We will always live with this question — 'What could we have done differently? How did we not notice?'" Siri also says with anger: "God, how did I miss it? When I realized he was experiencing a traumatic event, I didn't even know how to approach it." Dror adds: "I often think, maybe it's better that Uriel, Avraham, and Lior are here instead of me? Maybe they would have done more significant things than me in this world?"

"There is some talk in the army that if a soldier asks for a mental health officer, they take him off combat duty," continues Dror. "We need to make the visit to the mental health officer mandatory, not ask us," they conclude, and Alon adds: "The army is very good at telling the stories of the heroes who fell in the war, but it needs to know how to treat those with whom the war remained. In the end, with all due respect, let's talk about those who are alive. There is something to save here, someone to work with."

Uriel joins the wave of suicide incidents among IDF soldiers and fighters. In a discussion at the Subcommittee for Human Resources in January 2026, the IDF presented that 22 service members took their own lives in 2025, compared to 21 in 2024 and 14 in 2022. As of August 23, 2026, 19 were recorded, plus one with Uriel who was not a regular soldier.

Also, the NATAL association's helpline identifies a significant increase, with about 160 calls last July, a negative record in calls of a suicidal nature. In the Combat Diamonds forum, they respond: "It is impossible to continue treating every case as a private and separate tragedy. We are in the midst of a national crisis, and to this day there is no comprehensive national plan to deal with suicide among soldiers, veterans, and combat veterans."

Gal Nissim Emmanuel, founder and CEO of the "Mashe" movement: "Despite the inherent difficulty in identifying distress — since men are less inclined to share — suicide is not a decree of fate and there is something to be done. The immediate environment is a critical factor in prevention, but a learned skill of identifying signs, asking questions directly, and connecting to help is required."

Dealing with mental distress? The ERAN help center is available 24/7: 0528451201

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