Israeli soldiers have accused the government of abandoning them with little support for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by their military service, according to local mental health groups and several former conscripts.

As many as one in 12 Israeli soldiers who experience high intensity combat report PTSD symptoms, one study found, yet the lack of recognition for mental health problems caused by combat has left many former service personnel without treatment after they leave the army.

“I shot my first person before I was 19. I had people die in my arms,” said Or Eilon, 24, who was a combat medic and unit commander. He experienced severe symptoms of PTSD and was released from his 32-month compulsory service in 2016 with only a few months to go.

“I started to go crazy, I burnt things, I hit my mum. I woke up with urine all over my bed. I saw pictures, smelled things, tasted things. It’s scary.”

After Eilon was released he was diagnosed with PTSD. Despite this, he struggled for three years to be recognised by the Ministry of Defence, an essential step to receiving benefits and treatment paid for by the government. “They want you to give up, they make you go through so much,” he said.

During the past decade, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have fought three major wars in Gaza, all of which have been tainted by allegations of abuse. They have also maintained a crippling military occupation on Palestinians in the West Bank and, earlier this year, the UN accused soldiers of intentionally firing on civilians protesting at the Gaza frontier.

The struggle for recognition of the mental health problems caused by combat exposes a separate, hidden cost of control over the Palestinian territories and decades of intensive Israeli military operations in the Middle East.

One former soldier, Ben Goor Levy, 39, developed PTSD after he shot and killed a man but had to press for years to get the condition officially recognised.

“The psychiatrist in the army diagnosed me with PTSD but it took the Ministry of Defence eight years to approve it – they tried to get away from their responsibility,” he said. “They say: ‘So what if you shot someone? We trained you to do that.’”

To get official recognition of a PTSD diagnosis often means a hefty legal bill, according to Guy Konforti, a lawyer and former legal adviser to the army.

“The process costs a lot of money and can take years. The victims have to prove that the injury occurred during military service. Change the system so that the burden of proof is on the Ministry of Defence instead.”

Goor Levy founded the organisation Soldiers for Life with Ido Gal Razon, a former soldier who testified before a parliamentary committee about the lack of PTSD treatment. The organisation helps other veterans with the costly process of trying to get recognition for their PTSD.

The psychiatrist Danny Brom founded the NGO Metiv, the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma in 1989 to try to fill the gap in trauma support for former soldiers. There is no active screening by the army to pick up on people with the condition, he said.

“People come out of the army and say that the government throws us away, what are we fighting for?” Brom said. “We are mopping the floor while the tap is still running … There are youngsters in this crazy situation and they pay the price.”

Mental health charities are already stretched. During a rise in violence in Gaza in May, one group, Natal, received more than 2,000 phone calls in one week, as their number appears on major channels during crises.

Maor Gozlan, 29, was diagnosed with PTSD after his unit came under attack in 2011. He has yet to be treated for his symptoms, which when bad can cause panic attacks and make him unable to leave his home.

Maor Gozlan was diagnosed with PTSD after his unit came under attack in 2011. Photograph: Charlotta Lindblom and Amanda Forslund

“Every six months you have to send new documents, they ask for papers you can’t get,” he said. “Now it’s been eight years. I have done so much for the country – I wish the army would accept their responsibility.”

Eyal Fruchter, researcher and director of the mental health division at Rambam Health Care Campus, says the government is skirting its responsibilities. “I think the Ministry of Defence is mistreating people. It takes too long, people won’t file for compensation. They will go privately or to Natal,” he said.

In a written response, the Ministry of Defence said: “The State of Israel is fully committed to providing social and medical care for those who were injured while serving their country. In order to be eligible for services, the applicant must demonstrate that a disability was caused or aggravated during, and as a result of his/her military service.”

Meanwhile, Or Elion says his long wait for recognition prevented him from getting better. While waiting he did not start treatment on his own, fearing that any progress might make it even less likely that he would win the benefits and treatment he thought he deserved. Any sign of progress, he felt, would be used by the Ministry of Defence to evade their responsibility.

“It took me almost three years to get recognised,” he said. “That’s as long as the army service itself.”

In August this year the Ministry of Defence recognised that Eilon had PTSD as a result of his service. He is to start treatment in September, three years after he was released from the army.