They came back when called — again.
They left their jobs, their families, and their routines, returning to bases that felt both familiar and foreign. They fought, they served, they buried, and they came home to a world that didn't feel like home.
For many of Israel's reservists, this has been the hardest war of all — not the one fought on the battlefield, but the quiet one that follows it.
Mental Health First Aid Israel calls this stage the lonely return: the period when the uniform is folded away, but the memories remain.
One MHFA participant described it plainly: "When you're in uniform, everyone calls you a hero. When you take it off, no one calls at all."
That silence is where despair grows.
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