After the October 7 attack, Ronen Shalev’s wife, Gavriela, went missing. Her body was later found in a burned car with a goodbye letter.
The family’s losses extended to the Nova Party. Ronen’s son, Roee Shalev, was shot and hospitalised but survived. His partner, Mapal Adam, was killed in front of him. Ronen’s daughter, Lior Shalev, escaped alive.
Palestinian militant group Hamas and its affiliates in Gaza carried out the October 7 attack, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. Almost 400 people were murdered at the Nova festival. The attack triggered the war in Gaza.
Three years later, the effects remain a major burden on Israel’s health system, which is still struggling to come to terms with the attack’s consequences.
Israel’s State Comptroller said in a report from February 2025 that 39% of the public had reported post-traumatic symptoms, depression, anxiety, or a combination of those conditions at medium or severe levels. That proportion amounts to approximately 3 million people.
The report said 600,000 people could suffer severely. It offers no breakdown in the material available of which symptoms are most common, or of the health system’s capacity and resources to meet demand.
For families such as the Shalevs, the trauma has continued long after the attack. Two years after Gavriela’s death, Roee posted a goodbye message on Instagram: 'I'm alive, but I'm dead within.'
More than one-third of Israelis have shown symptoms of mental health conditions. The scale of those symptoms leaves patients with continuing needs for care while the country’s health system faces the effects of widespread trauma.
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