Suicide Hotlines and Crisis Lines in Israel

A helpline is a place to talk to someone when you are struggling, before or instead of a crisis. The lines on this page are answered by trained volunteers, social workers or health staff, depending on the service. If you are not in Israel, the worldwide list is organised by country.

What you share is kept private in almost all cases; if a counsellor believes a life is in immediate danger, they may arrange urgent help. Several services on this page publish their own confidentiality wording, and we quote it beside them. What each service costs is set out beside it where the service publishes it, and marked as not published where it does not.

TherapyRoute is a directory. We do not answer calls or messages ourselves, so please use the numbers below rather than contacting us if you need someone now.

CRISIS LINES, SUICIDE HOTLINES, AND HELPLINES IN ISRAEL

Each number below was checked in August 2026 at the operating organisation's own website, or at an official government page such as gov.il or the Ministry of Health.

Notice an error or a missing service? Please tell us so we can correct it.

Emergency numbers, and what each one is for

ERAN, 1201, emotional first aid at any hour

ERAN in Arabic, 1201 extension 7

118, the Ministry of Welfare line, in six languages

SAHAR, support in writing, in Hebrew and Arabic

NATAL, for trauma connected to war and terror

The line for olim, in five languages

ELEM, for young people

Health fund support lines, for members

While you are waiting to be answered

If you are worried about someone else

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Emergency numbers, and what each one is for

Israel runs a separate three digit number for each emergency service. The official list is a government page, last updated in January 2026.

Police: 100

Ambulance, Magen David Adom (מגן דוד אדום): 101. Magen David Adom's own site prints 101 on its page describing how an emergency call is handled.

Fire and Rescue Israel (כבאות והצלה לישראל): 102

Home Front Command (פיקוד העורף): 104

There is no national three digit mental health line in Israel. The nearest equivalents are 1201, run by the charity ERAN, and 118, a government welfare line. Both are described below.

The Ministry of Health also publishes an access rule worth knowing. In its words, when experiencing extreme distress you may go to the emergency room at a mental health centre, meaning a psychiatric hospital. It states these emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day, all year, that no referral is required, and that the service does not involve payment.

ERAN, 1201, emotional first aid at any hour

ERAN (עמותת ער"ן - עזרה ראשונה נפשית, Emotional First Aid) is a volunteer association. In its own words, it provides anonymous, life saving emotional first aid to the whole Israeli public across all its sectors, at any age, in any distress or difficulty, and in a range of languages. The same page states that its services are not a substitute for professional treatment.

ERAN publishes its own confidentiality rule, which we translate here: anonymity is a basic principle, and it makes no external use of your details, except in cases of danger to life or harm to minors and dependent persons, where it is under a legal duty to report.

Because of the volume of approaches, ERAN says you may talk with it once a day, on one support service of your choosing. If you are turned away after a second attempt in a day, that is why.

Tel: 1201

WhatsApp: 052-8451201

SMS: 052-999-3544

Chat: eran.org.il/online-emotional-help

Email: eran1201@eran.org.il, answered within 48 hours by ERAN's own account.

Hours: the telephone line is printed beside the number as answering 24/7, and the Ministry of Health lists ERAN among telephone support centres operating 24/7. The written channels run from 08:00 to 02:00, 365 days a year, by the page's summary line. The same page gives the SMS closing time as midnight in one place and 02:00 in another, so treat midnight as the safer figure for SMS.

Cost: ERAN's Hebrew pages do not print a cost for calling 1201. Its English site says it is there for you "anonymously and free of charge", and its written channels page says online support is given at no cost.

ERAN in Arabic, 1201 extension 7

ERAN's Arabic language support line (קו הסיוע בערבית / عيران باللغة العربية خط المساندة النفسية الاولية) is answered on the same number, at extension 7. In ERAN's words, it is intended for every person in the Arab population in Israel across all its sectors, including Druze and Bedouin, for anyone young or adult, to talk about any subject. Those who answer are Arabic speaking ERAN volunteers trained for the role and supervised by professionals.

Tel: 1201, extension 7

Hours: 10:00 to 12:00 and 19:00 to 21:00, as published. No days of the week are given on the page. Note the difference from the Hebrew service: the same number answers at any hour in Hebrew, but the Arabic language service keeps these hours.

Cost: ERAN describes it as free dialling to 1201 extension 7.

118, the Ministry of Welfare line, in six languages

The 118 information and assistance centre (מוקד מידע וסיוע - 118) is run by the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security (משרד הרווחה והביטחון החברתי). It is a welfare line rather than a mental health line, and it is described here because it is the only round-the-clock line on this page that publishes Arabic language cover at every hour.

In the ministry's words, in cases needing immediate welfare assistance, initial handling is by a social worker, to help the caller and where necessary to broker between them and the appropriate service in the community. Its listed subject areas include emergency services, domestic violence, sexual assault and addictions.

Tel: 118

SMS: 050-2270118, published as a silent call route for domestic violence and emergencies.

Hours: in the ministry's words, the centre answers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 364 days a year, except Yom Kippur. If you are reading this on Yom Kippur, use the emergency numbers at the top of this page instead.

Cost: in the ministry's words, the service is given free, and the telephone call itself is a free call.

Languages: Hebrew, English, Russian, Arabic, Amharic and French.

SAHAR, support in writing, in Hebrew and Arabic

SAHAR (עמותת סה"ר - סיוע והקשבה ברשת, Support and Listening Online) offers written support only. There is no telephone line. Its volunteers describe the association as working to save lives and to give immediate, accessible and anonymous emotional support, including to people at risk of suicide. SAHAR is plain that its volunteers are not clinicians and that the conversation is not a substitute for treatment. It says a conversation usually lasts up to 40 minutes.

SAHAR publishes its own confidentiality wording, which we translate here: the anonymity of those who approach is preserved, except in cases of real danger to life or harm to minors and dependent persons, where it is obliged by law to report to further helping agencies. It also publishes a warning worth reading before you choose a channel: WhatsApp does not allow full anonymity, and your name and phone number will appear in its system.

Chat, Hebrew: sahar.org.il/help, anonymous, no registration.

WhatsApp, Hebrew: via this WhatsApp link

Chat, Arabic: sahar.org.il/arabic/chat

WhatsApp, Arabic: via this WhatsApp link

Email: info@sahar.org.il

Hours: SAHAR's own site gives two different answers on the same page. Its FAQ says the Hebrew chat is open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. An operating hours block lower on the same page gives Sunday to Thursday 16:00 to 03:00, and Friday, Shabbat and festival eves 18:00 to 00:00. We report both rather than choosing; the narrower hours are the safer ones to plan around. The Arabic chat is published separately and clearly: every day of the week, 18:00 to 24:00.

Cost: in SAHAR's words, everyone who approaches the chat speaks with a volunteer one to one, discreetly and at no cost.

Languages: in SAHAR's words, at present the service is given in Hebrew and Arabic only.

NATAL, for trauma connected to war and terror

NATAL (נט"ל) runs a helpline for people affected by trauma on a background of war and terror, and their family members. In its own words, the line offers emotional first aid, and its primary aim is to restore a sense of control and calm to callers at a time of anxiety and emotional distress. It is staffed by volunteers who specialise in telephone based emotional support and are accompanied by a professional team. NATAL states that approaches are anonymous, and that information given during the conversation is not passed to external parties, except in emergency and life saving cases.

Tel: *3362. NATAL prints *3362 in every position on its own site. The Ministry of Health's crisis support page lists NATAL as 1-800-363-363 instead. Both are official sources, so we give both; if one does not connect, try the other.

Chat: a chat widget on natal.org.il, open Sunday to Thursday, 16:00 to 24:00.

Hours: NATAL says the telephone line is available 24/7, throughout all the days of the year.

Cost: not published on the pages we read.

Languages: not published on the pages we read.

NATAL also operates the Nefesh Achat line (קו "נפש אחת") with the Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Defense, on *8944. In NATAL's words it provides emotional support, assistance and direction to IDF disabled veterans, security forces and discharged soldiers coping with post-trauma arising from their service. Its hours are not published on the page we read.

The line for olim, in five languages

The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration runs a support line through ERAN for olim and returning residents. ERAN's English page describes it as offering free and anonymous emotional support and professional psychological assistance. It is the only route this page found to a live person in English, Russian, Amharic, French or Spanish.

Tel: *3201. ERAN prints *3201 on both its Hebrew and English pages. The Ministry of Health's crisis support page prints *3207 for the same service, one digit apart. Both are official sources, so we give both; if one does not connect, try the other.

Hours: the service page says Sunday to Thursday, 14:00 to 21:00. Two other ERAN pages give a 16:00 start instead, so calls before 16:00 may not be answered.

Cost: "free and anonymous", in the English page's words.

Languages: Russian, Amharic, English, French and Spanish.

ELEM, for young people

ELEM (עלם) is a charity for young people in situations of risk. This is a scoped service: it is for young people, and it says so plainly. In its own words, ELEM's chat is available to young people, and the team and volunteers of ELEM Digital are available in anonymous chat.

WhatsApp: 0546786776

Chat: www.yelem.org.il

Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 19:00 to 24:00.

Cost: not published on the page we read.

Health fund support lines, for members

The Ministry of Health lists four emotional support centres run by the health funds, each answering 24/7 by the ministry's description. These are member lines: each answers members of that fund, so they are placed last on this page even though their hours are the widest. The numbers below rest on the Ministry of Health page; we did not verify them on each fund's own site.

Clalit (כללית): *8703

Maccabi (מכבי): *3555

Meuhedet (מאוחדת): *3833

Leumit (לאומית): *507

While you are waiting to be answered

Some of these lines keep set hours, and a line that is open can still be busy. If you are waiting, try to stay with someone you trust, or ask someone to sit with you until the call or chat connects.

If you have anything near you that you could use to harm yourself, put it somewhere harder to reach, or ask someone else to hold it for you. Distance and time both help.

If waiting is not possible, dial 100 or 101, or go to a hospital emergency department. The emergency room of a mental health centre needs no referral, and you do not need to explain yourself well.

If you are worried about someone else

Ask them directly. Asking someone whether they are thinking of suicide does not put the idea there, and it often comes as a relief to be asked plainly.

Listen more than you advise. You do not need the right words, and you are not expected to fix anything.

If they are willing, offer to sit with them while they call or message one of the services above, or to make the contact together. If they are in immediate danger, treat it as you would any medical emergency.

Supporting someone through this is heavy, and it is reasonable to want support of your own. The same lines are open to you.

For services in other countries, see the list of helplines and suicide hotlines worldwide.

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