Israel was gripped by sorrow and shock on Saturday following the suicide of Roei Shalev, a survivor of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on the Nova music festival, in which his girlfriend was killed.
Shalev's body was found Friday night in his burned car north of Tel Aviv, hours after he had posted a message on social media expressing his intention to end his life.
"I cannot bear this pain anymore. I am burning on the inside... I just want this pain to end," he wrote on his Instagram account.
Several secular opposition politicians -- many of whom, unlike most ruling coalition members, remain active on social media during the Jewish Sabbath -- reacted with dismay to the news on Saturday and called for greater mental health support for survivors of the October 7 attacks.
"It is time for the State of Israel to treat those suffering from mental health issues as heroes -- not as statistics," Avigdor Liberman, leader of the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party, wrote on X.
"Roei could not withstand the pain, but others are still here fighting, coping, trying to live. We must give them all the help we can -- so they don't feel alone," wrote Yair Golan, head of the left-wing Democrats party.
Shalev's girlfriend, Mapal Adam, and his best friend, Hili Solomon, were murdered before his eyes at the Nova music festival in southern Israel.
The three had been trying to hide under cars as Hamas-led fighters launched their unprecedented assault on southern Israel.
Two weeks after the massacre, Shalev's mother also took her own life. According to Israeli media reports, she had been very close to Adam and was devastated by her death.
More than 370 revellers were massacred when Palestinian fighters crossed from Gaza into Israel in the early hours of October 7, 2023, attacking the music festival and several nearby communities.
