Invisible in uniform: Bereavement under betrayal and Existential randomness among female IDF spotters.

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how the sense of institutional betrayal and the randomness of survival shape the experience of traumatic bereavement among 20 female IDF spotters who survived the events of October 7. Data were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA). The findings reveal the phenomenon of "bereavement under betrayal"-a condition in which the processing of loss is complicated and blocked by a profound rupture in the institutional contract. This foundation was formed by prior "epistemic injustice" (the systematic dismissal of their professional warnings before the disaster), which turned the death of their peers into an event perceived as a preventable failure. Additionally, the study demonstrates how random survival circumstances trigger intense counterfactual thinking, generating severe survivor guilt and hindering meaning reconstruction processes. The sense of abandonment-whether experienced directly at the base or mediated from afar through the media-prevents the survivors from adopting the official state narrative of heroism, leading to alienation and moral injury. In conclusion, the study emphasizes that the psychological rehabilitation of this type of complex bereavement is contingent upon institutional acknowledgment of responsibility for the failure.