As Israel approaches the two-year mark since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, it continues to grapple with the harsh reality of protracted conflict. This reality is also deeply familiar to Ukraine, now well into its third year of full-scale war. While the contexts differ, both societies have experienced firsthand how the battlefield extends far beyond the front lines, touching every aspect of civilian life.
In Israel, recent surveys indicate that more than half of families have experienced physical or psychological harm since the war began. Protracted conflict tests more than military capacity; it challenges the resilience of entire societies. Fatigue, secondary trauma, and institutional erosion accumulate over time, weakening the very foundations of recovery. Addressing these effects is not merely a humanitarian concern but a strategic imperative. Ilona Drozdov, Expert in Maritime Security, National Resilience & Global Cooperation, Head of International Committee, Forum Dvorah, told Mind how a society can withstand a protracted war and what the experience of Ukraine and Israel shows.
Some of the most devastating impacts are not accidental but inflicted by design. The sexual violence committed on October 7, alongside the continued abuse of hostages, represents deliberate tactics of war, aimed at destabilizing society and leaving deep, generational scars.
Civil society initiatives like the Dinah Project have mobilized to gather evidence and push for accountability, contributing to Hamas’s inclusion on the UN Secretary-General’s list of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict. Justice is not only about punishing perpetrators; it is about restoring dignity, reinforcing social trust, and rejecting the normalization of atrocity.
Ukraine has faced similar patterns, with Russian forces systematically employing sexual violence as a weapon of intimidation. By June 2025, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office had registered over 360 cases, though the true scale is far greater. In response, Ukraine passed landmark legislation to provide reparations even during wartime, granting survivors access to medical and psychosocial care, legal aid, shelter, financial support, and recognition of children born of rape as victims.
Both Israel and Ukraine show that confronting sexual violence requires more than outrage. It demands legal, political, and international action to deliver justice for victims and create deterrence against future violations.
As trauma and disruption accumulate across society, another critical front becomes visible: the healthcare system. During the Iron Swords War, Israel’s healthcare system emerged as a strategic “second front,” absorbing both the immediate and long-term human toll of conflict. The October 7 attack unleashed the largest mass-casualty scenario in Israel’s history: over 1,100 people killed, 255 abducted, and more than 1,600 injured. Hospitals were overwhelmed; emergency teams triaged under fire, treated severe physical injuries and psychological trauma, and adapted in real time to rapidly shifting conditions.
This exceeded conventional emergency scenarios, revealing both strengths and stress points within the system. Advanced trauma centers operated efficiently, but their concentration in central Israel exposed geographic disparities. Rehabilitation services faced surging demand for complex care, prompting hospitals to deploy mobile trauma units, robotic-assisted therapies, digital monitoring, virtual reality, and embedded mental health support. These measures expanded access and improved responsiveness, yet structural gaps, especially in continuity of care for displaced populations and psychological support, remain.
Mental health remains a particularly urgent challenge. Following October 7, Israeli trauma support organizations such as ERAN, NATAL, and ELEM reported over half a million calls – an unprecedented surge. Psychologists warn of a “tsunami” of untreated trauma unless mental health becomes a permanent pillar of national strategy.
In 2024, Israel launched its national program Makom LaNefesh (‘A Place for the Soul’), providing approximately $180 million in annual funding to expand mental health services, resilience centers, and community-based care. While this marks a historic shift after years of underinvestment, the challenge lies in sustaining such efforts to meet the long-term psychological toll of prolonged conflict.
Ukraine presents a parallel, though distinct, set of challenges. WHO assessments show that 68% of Ukrainians report declining health, while nearly half experience trauma-related mental health issues. Since 2022, over 2,250 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine, including the strike on Odesa’s largest children’s clinic. Beyond the direct destruction, health access has sharply declined across front-line regions: in Kherson, 43% of adults report being denied care, compared with 24% in Kharkiv and 18% in Zaporizhzhia.
To meet these pressures, Ukraine’s healthcare system has adapted through mobile clinics, digital mental health platforms, and international support networks, underscoring that resilience depends not only on infrastructure, but on innovation and coordination.
Together, Israel and Ukraine illustrate a crucial insight: civilian healthcare is a “second front” in modern conflict. How societies absorb acute shocks, maintain continuity of care, and support long-term rehabilitation profoundly shapes national resilience and the capacity to endure prolonged crises.
At the societal level, communities face cumulative stress, disrupted cohesion, and the challenge of sustaining national resilience amid ongoing instability. In times of crisis, local networks in Israel have proven to be vital force multipliers. From parents’ WhatsApp groups, initially for school updates, that transformed into emergency coordination hubs, to nationwide centers, like IACC, mobilizing support for evacuees, grassroots resilience has filled critical gaps.
These informal and formal systems provided shelter, psychological aid, and real-time information – often faster than centralized responses. Their agility and trust-based structure turned improvisation into infrastructure, showing that empowered communities are strategic assets.
In Ukraine, volunteer hubs and local defense groups have become lifelines, delivering medicine, sharing information, and sustaining support where state systems are stretched thin. These networks prove that communication is not peripheral to national defense – it is central. With proper funding, training, and integration into emergency planning, local initiatives can evolve from ad-hoc improvisation into lasting infrastructure of resilience.
Wars today are not only fought with weapons and armies – they are endured by civilians, families, and communities. Israel’s experience shows that healthcare, justice, community networks, and mental health are as essential to national security as defense systems.
For Ukraine, victory will not only be measured in liberated territory, but in the ability of its society to endure, recover, and grow stronger despite the trauma.
Resilience cannot be reactive. It must become a way of life – a long-term strategy that sustains society amid disruption. Fatigue and trauma will persist, but support structures can carry communities through. International cooperation is essential: no country can shoulder these burdens alone. Israel, Ukraine, and their partners must share lessons on defending hospitals, documenting atrocities, and weaving justice, healthcare, and community resilience into national security.
Prolonged emergencies embed trauma into institutions, shaping recovery for years; the real challenge is managing their civilian consequences across every dimension of society.