The act of killing on the battlefield is said not to be detrimental to soldiers' wellbeing if they believe the circumstances behind the killing were justified, according to a study published by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Medical Services.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Sage Journals earlier this month, said that killing in combat and any diverging effects it has are "shaped by mission-specific contextual factors."
The Norway-based study compared some of the country's veterans who were deployed into two missions, one in Afghanistan from 2001-2011 and the other in Lebanon from 1978-1998, the first being a "combat-oriented" mission and the latter being a "peacekeeping" mission, the study noted. In the study, over 10,000 served in Lebanon and over 4,000 served in Afghanistan, but only a small minority in both of those groups had killed someone in combat.
“Killing another person does not in itself seem to be something that goes against human nature, and it doesn’t necessarily harm the mental health of the person who does it,” said Commander Andreas Espetvedt Nordstrand, one of the researchers in the study and the head of research and development at the Institute of Military Psychiatry at the Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Medical Services. “We studied every Norwegian Armed Forces veteran who had served in Lebanon and Afghanistan and identified those who have killed in combat.”
Nordstrand, who began the research in 2020, added that killing someone in combat in Lebanon was actually more likely to impact soldiers' metal health than in Afghanistan, adding that the veterans who served in the latter "had no subsequent impact on their mental wellbeing. We did not identify a trend in any of the variables we investigated,” largely due to vastly different missions that were required to do in the two countries.
In Afghanistan, soldiers were likely to find themselves in combat situations, while in Lebanon, the soldiers were just required to ensure that peace was maintained, according to Nordstrand. A ceasefire in Lebanon was implemented on November 27 of last year between Israel and Hezbollah.
The study concluded that soldiers' mental health would be negatively impacted should they encounter personal threats and witness death, as opposed to actually killing in combat, which can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, alcohol use, insomnia, and lower quality of life. It also concluded that those who served in Lebanon suffered more mental health problems.
Study published 18 months into Israel-Hamas War
The Norway-based study was published a year and a half into the Israel-Hamas War, with Israel coming under much international condemnation, including a genocide case in the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of mass killings of civilians.
Updated data from the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department and the IDF last month showed that about 7,500 soldiers had returned from the fighting in the enclave were grappling with psychological trauma, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and adjustment disorders.
A State Comptroller’s Report published a week earlier stated that the government “has not done enough to address the anticipated mental health challenges,” estimating that “no fewer than 3 million Israelis may develop symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD as a result of the war.”
Two mental health support centers were also established last month in Haifa and Nahariya for IDF soldiers who have suffered psychological trauma due to the war.
Dr. Itay Gal and Walla! contributed to this report.