As Israel marks 1,000 days since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, data cited by Clalit Health Services — Israel's largest healthcare provider — shows 84% of Israeli children exhibited signs of emotional distress by late 2023, with 25,274 officially recognized as victims of hostile acts through the end of 2025. The Israeli Ministry of Education is deploying approximately $270 million this summer to support roughly 1.12 million students, its largest sustained intervention since the war began.
Trauma Data and Clinical Picture
Nufar Bar Lipshatz, a developmental psychologist in the Northern District of Clalit Health Services, drew on a joint study by the Goshen organization and the Israeli Pediatric Association to document the 84% distress rate. Israel's National Insurance Institute separately recorded the 25,274 child-victim figure covering October 7, 2023, through year-end 2025. Bar Lipshatz described symptoms ranging from selective mutism and regressive behaviors to nervous tics, with children re-enacting shelter drills, parental deployments, and kidnappings during play. She noted that summer breaks, while offering relief from school-related triggers, can deepen avoidance patterns and entrench anxiety over time if children lack structured coping tools.
Families on the Border
Lilach, 47, of Kibbutz Eilon — situated just over a mile and a half from Israel's border with Lebanon in the Western Galilee — said her children had only one uninterrupted school year since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. Her son Yoni, who has attention deficit disorder, will move to a smaller classroom in the coming year for additional support; her daughter Amit graduated high school through determination and private tutoring despite repeated disruptions. Anat, 50, of Kibbutz Yiftah in the Upper Galilee, less than two miles from the Lebanese border, said her family changed schools three times before returning home in February 2025, with her 10-year-old missing roughly six weeks of in-person instruction during Israel's recent confrontation with Iran.
Ministry Response and Summer Programming
For the first time, the Ministry of Education will include middle school students in summer programs covering artificial intelligence, STEM subjects, mathematics, science, and English. Participation rates are highest in northern and southern communities directly affected by the fighting. The ministry's Psychological Counseling Service will expand capacity, and the "Voice for All" support hotline will remain active through the break.
OneFamily Camp: 400 Bereaved Children
OneFamily, which supports terrorism and war victims, will host more than 400 children — each of whom has lost an immediate family member, the majority since October 7 — at its annual summer camp in the Golan Heights from July 8 to July 13. The program combines swimming, sports, and competitions with therapeutic group dialogue circles, culminating in a final-night concert where campers share accounts of loss and recovery. Founding director Chantal Belzberg, who received the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement this year, said peer connection among bereaved children creates a therapeutic environment that conventional services cannot replicate, directly countering the isolation that follows mass trauma events.