The report’s case files paint a troubling picture of command culture. By Pesach Benson, TPSIsrael’s Soldiers’ Complaints Commissioner found a sharp rise in formal grievances filed by military personnel in 2025, warning that two years of intensive combat have exposed deep failures in how the Israeli military treats the men and women who serve it.The annual report, submitted on Monday to Defense Minister Israel Katz and the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by Commissioner Brigadier General (res.) Racheli Tevet-Wiesel documented 6,621 complaints filed against the Israel Defense Forces during the year—a figure that remained broadly stable compared with 2024’s wartime total but which conceals a more alarming trend within the career officer corps.Complaints from career soldiers—the officers and non-commissioned officers who form the IDF’s permanent command backbone—rose by 40 percent compared with the previous year, with 58 percent of those found to be justified.“Attending to people, and in particular the realization of their rights, has a central impact on building trust between the IDF and those who serve in it,” the commissioner wrote, calling the trend “a warning signal that demands action.”The report covers all categories of Israeli military service. Israel operates a conscript system in which most Jewish citizens serve two to three years of mandatory duty and remain liable for annual reserve callups thereafter.Reservists have been mobilized at an unprecedented scale since the Gaza war began in October 2023. Across all of 2025’s complaint categories, 52 percent of reviewed cases were found justified.The report’s case files paint a troubling picture of command culture.In one incident during operations in Lebanon, a company commander noticed a soldier’s bootlaces were undone, grabbed the soldier’s leg, cut open his trousers with a knife and lightly wounded him in front of the entire unit.The commander was reprimanded and brought before a disciplinary tribunal.In a separate case, a commanding officer pointed an air rifle—found in a building during operations—at a subordinate and fired, hitting him in the body. That case was referred to military police investigators.Commanders were also found to have exploited their unit drivers for personal errands—school runs, airport pickups, grocery shopping, and hotel trips for family members—with two separate lieutenant colonel cases ultimately referred to military police for criminal investigation.Failures in mental health response featured prominently. One commander told a soldier who expressed suicidal thoughts, “Go ahead and kill yourself; take your weapon and do it.”Another responded to a subordinate’s written message about self-harm with a single word: “Okay.” Both commanders faced disciplinary action after the commissioner intervened.The report also flagged a dangerous medical failure: a female soldier’s repeated complaints of breathlessness were dismissed as anxiety for four days before a cardiologist sent her to an emergency room, where she was found to have a pulmonary embolism and admitted to intensive care.The unit doctor was removed from his post and barred from serving as a treating physician in the military.Infrastructure conditions across bases also drew sustained criticism, with the commissioner describing visits that found broken plumbing, mold, pest infestations, and facilities overwhelmed by wartime troop numbers.During one heatwave, a power failure left soldiers without air conditioning and with scalding water running from taps, while a single doctor tried to treat multiple cases of collapse.Tevet-Wiesel said she remained confident that commanders genuinely cared about their soldiers’ welfare and that the report’s findings should serve as a tool “for learning and improvement” across the institution as a whole.The post Military watchdog warns of command failures as career soldier complaints jump 40% appeared first on World Israel News.