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The lasting effects of the Oct. 7 terror attack meant another tragedy as a survivor’s family blamed lack of care when the young woman marked her birthday with suicide.

With dozens still being held by Hamas more than a year after the savage attack on men, women, and children in Israel, including a number of Americans, considerably less time has been spent covering the plight of survivors.

Sunday, as Shirel Golan, who’d managed to escape the Nova festival, was to celebrate her 22nd birthday, her brother Eyal Golan discovered her dead from suicide after months of struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaking with the media as one of four surviving older brothers, Eyal found fault with Israel’s universal healthcare system as he asserted, “If the state had taken care of her, none of this would have happened. The State of Israel killed my sister twice. Once in October, mentally, and a second time today, on her 22nd birthday, physically.”

Ynet reported him saying, “After she survived, I saw signs of post-trauma like avoidance and withdrawal from social interactions. I urged her to seek help, but she said she only received support from the Nova association, not from the state.”

It was explained that she and her partner, Adi, had fled when the terrorists attacked, hiding under a bush only to escape captivity and death suffered by others, including 11 people whom they’d originally been with in what Eyal described as the “ride of death.”

Golan was ultimately rescued by officer Remo Salman El-Hozayel who, having commandeered a car, was said to have saved 200 festival goers from the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists who raped and brutalized their victims as a reported 364 lives were taken at the festival alone.

According to the brother, his sister had twice been hospitalized for PTSD symptoms and he explained to Channel 12, “My mother was forced to take early retirement to be next to her daughter. We didn’t move a millimeter from her, and the only time we left her alone was today, and she decided to take her own life.”

With plans to visit the Western Wall and the Cave of the Patriarchs with her parents to mark her birthday, Eyal had said that his sister hadn’t left a note, “We are five siblings, and she was the youngest. The government needs to wake up. If it doesn’t, there will be more cases like this. If the state had provided care, this wouldn’t have happened. I’ve lost my sister, but I want to raise an outcry so others don’t lose their loved ones.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s Welfare and Social Services Ministry denied claims that Golan was left without care and said in part patients were “recognized and treated in the welfare system even before October 7 and especially after,” and noted they provide “an assistance package and support to party survivors in a wide variety of forms.”

Still, the Times of Israel reported that Tel Aviv University’s National Center for Traumatic Stress and Resilience head Prof. Yair Bar-Haim had estimated in February that as many as 30,000 Israelis could suffer PTSD related to the Oct. 7 terror attack and subsequent military action

“The system was already clogged before October 7. People had to wait nine months for an appointment with a psychologist in their health maintenance organization,” he added. “The situation wasn’t much better if a person opted to go the private route, which has waiting lists and is expensive.”

Word of the latest in the ongoing tragedy was met with thoughts and prayers for Golan and her loved ones on social media.

Kevin Haggerty
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