An army psychiatrist is being investigated after telling a suicidal soldier that it was okay that he wanted to die because military service is about killing and being killed.

IDF Chief Medical Officer Brig. Gen. Itzik Kreis ordered an investigative committee to examine the incident. The psychiatrist, who was fulfilling reserve duty, will not be summoned for further reserve duty until the investigation has been completed.

"The person in question was a reservist and the statement attributed to him was serious and does not fit the values of the IDF," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement. "If these things were said, the IDF admonishes them, is distressed by them and intends to address the issue."

In a recording of the conversation between the psychiatrist and the soldier last Monday at the Tzrifin military base, which later aired on Channel 2 news, the mental health professional can be heard dismissing the soldier's distress.

"How do you feel? What, not so good?" the psychiatrist asks the soldier in the recording. The soldier, who had made at least two attempts to commit suicide, replies, "I don't want to live."

The soldier had previously tried to commit suicide at a different base after being sent to a training course in which he did not want to participate. After spending time in a military jail he went home where he tried again to commit suicide.

"What?" the psychiatrist asks in the recording.

"I don't want to live," the soldier says again.

"Why? Why did you come to me?" says the psychiatrist. "OkayMaybe we'll give you treatment that will make you feel good. What do you say? You don't want to receive treatment?"

"I want to die," says the soldier.

"No, that you want to die is okay, excellent. The army is good place designed to kill or be killed. That's the army. But the question is do you want to feel good?"

"I want to go home," says the soldier.

"Bye. Please. Good Bye," the psychiatrists replies in the recording, before returning to other matters.

Recording that aired on television appears to show reservist psychiatrists telling suicidal soldier with history of suicide attempts that army is a good place for him because it is 'kill or be killed.'