Near half of Israeli student soldiers mull 'quitting' school amid Gaza war

A recent opinion poll revealed that 42 percent of Israeli university students serving as reservists in the army are considering dropping out of school due to the deterioration of their psychological condition as a result of the ongoing devastating war on Gaza.

“More than 60 percent of the students said their psychological state had worsened since the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023,” the Israeli channel 13 said on Sunday, quoting the poll results.

“About 40 percent of them are thinking about withdrawing from their studies due to the effects of the war,” the poll added, noting that the percentage among student reserve soldiers reached 42 percent.

The latest poll, conducted by the Association of Male and Female Students in Israel on a sample of 7,350 participants, revealed that 48 percent of students said “they had received or might receive psychological help in the future due to the war.”

Israel launched a deadly offensive on Gaza on Oct. 7 that has killed at least 28,064 Palestinians and injured 67,611 following a surprise attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 percent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.