The story of Josh Malchman, the invisible wounds

Josh made Aliyah to Israel and joined the IDF as a “Lone Soldier" in the Combat Engineering Corps. During his service he was injured and moved positions to serve in an intelligence capacity in the Special Operations Engineering Unit. He served in Operations Pillar of Defense (2012) and Protective Edge in 2014 in the Gaza Strip. Today, we are marking 10 years when the 2014 Operation Protective Edge began – but Josh still carries the ghosts of his traumatic experiences since that military operation, today as a disabled veteran with PTSD.

The consequences of the war were only discovered several years afterwards: “A few years after my release, while serving in the Reserves during Operation Northern Shield in 2018, the symptoms that up until that point had been creeping up on me, burst out with a fury. I had more than 5 panic attacks a day, recurring nightmares, and became completely emotionally disconnected from myself, and other symptoms. Suddenly instead of people I started seeing potential danger. During one 4th of July celebrations, while visiting my family during my service, we went to see fireworks, something I enjoyed in the past. Suddenly once the fireworks started, everything went black".

With the outbreak of the Swords of Iron war, many disabled veterans from Protective Edge have been flooded with feelings, emotions, and flashbacks: “The last few months have been incredibly difficult to cope with, and keeping busy through a variety of activities offered through Beit Halochem has been instrumental In helping me get through this trying time. Seeing other wounded veterans creating, and watching them overcome their own personal challenges, has been priceless."