The military announced on Sunday that three soldiers serving in the Nahal Infantry Brigade were dismissed from combat duty and jailed for insubordination, after they refused to serve in Gaza due to “a deep internal crisis.”

The case was first reported by the Kan public broadcaster and later confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces.

According to Kan, four soldiers in Nahal’s 931st Battalion were dismissed from combat for refusing to enter Gaza after several rounds of fighting in the Strip.

Three were sentenced and will serve seven to 12 days in jail, while the fourth has not yet been sentenced.

The report said the four told their commanders that they cannot enter Gaza again because of “a deep internal crisis.”

It said that the four also claim that when they announced their refusal, they were sent to prison instead of being treated.

Kan also quoted a mother of one of the four soldiers as saying that they had lost many comrades in battle and were exposed to difficult sights and endured tragic experiences.

“These things were seared into their souls,” the mother reportedly said.

The IDF responded to the report by saying that the three standing army soldiers of the Nahal Brigade “refused to enter the fighting in the Gaza Strip.”

The army noted that the soldiers met with a mental health officer, “who determined that they were fit to participate in combat.”

“After a disciplinary procedure, the fighters stood by their refusal and were therefore sentenced to imprisonment in a military prison,” the IDF said.

The IDF said that the case was handled with “sensitivity and in accordance with orders,” adding that it views “insubordination gravely, especially during combat, and will continue to uphold discipline and command values.”

Ima Era (Wide-Awake Mother), an organization of mothers of IDF soldiers, said in a statement carried by the Haaretz daily that “when soldiers repeatedly cry out that they can no longer continue, this is not a ‘disciplinary issue.’ It is a damning indictment of a system that has pushed its people to the edge of their endurance.”

The military has been facing a growing problem of reservists not showing up for duty, but the four soldiers disciplined by the military Sunday were conscripts, among whom refusal is less common.

The IDF is also facing a mental health crisis, including a rise in the number of suspected suicides in the military since the war in Gaza began.

In just the past few weeks, four soldiers, including an off-duty reservist, have died by suspected suicide, bringing to 19 the total number of such cases since the beginning of the year.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459.