IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi has relieved one officer of duty and formally censured four others for their role in the suicide of a soldier who was being recruited by Military Police as an informant.
The investigation into the January 2018 suicide of Givati soldier Cpl. Niv Lubaton took place over the course of several months, after Kochavi ordered a full investigation into his suicide and the methods used by the Military Police Investigatory Unit (Metzach) for recruiting informants.
The full investigation began the indictment of two former IDF military police officers last September, following an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. They were indicted in military court for failing to properly report Lubaton’s mental health, non-compliance and inappropriate conduct.suicide, with 12 soldiers taking their own lives, including two lone soldiers.Soldiers who commit suicide are officially defined as “suspected suicides” until the Military Police have finished investigating their cases. While 2019 saw an increase in suicides from the previous year’s nine suicides, the number in the military has been decreasing from its peak in 2005 when 36 soldiers took their lives.Of the 43 IDF soldiers who died in 2018, eight are suspected of committing suicide; two years earlier, of the 41 soldiers who died in 2016, 15 soldiers are suspected of committing suicide. The general downward trend in suicide in the IDF has been credited to restricted access to weapons on the one hand, and the army’s efforts in suicide prevention on the other. The army launched an extensive plan to prevent suicide in 2006, with numerous programs designed to better train commanders to identify soldiers who may have suicidal thoughts, and streamlining army procedures to ensure all relevant information is received by mental health officers as soldiers move between units.