Abstract
ABSTRACT
The mass kidnapping of 251 individuals by Hamas on October 7, 2023, created a collective ambiguous loss for Israeli society, marked by prolonged uncertainty over the hostages' fate. While ambiguous loss is typically studied in families, its population‐level health associations during continuous armed conflict are unknown. This study provides the first longitudinal evidence of this experience. Israeli adults were surveyed at three (T1;
N
= 740), six (T2;
N
= 336), and eighteen (T3;
N
= 254) months post‐kidnapping; a representative subsample (
N
= 220) completed all waves. We assessed general psychological distress (DASS), abduction‐related separation distress (ALI+–SD), and boundary ambiguity (BAS). Within‐subject mixed‐effects models indicated significant reductions in DASS and BAS scores from T1 to T2 (
B
= 1.04 and
B
= 1.28, respectively;
p
s B
= −1.58,
p
< 0.01). ALI+–SD and BAS each significantly predicted DASS beyond time effects, with multilevel mediation indicating that ALI+–SD mediated the BAS–DASS association. In the longitudinal sample, ALI+–SD and BAS together explained 44% (T1), 34% (T2), and 41% (T3) of the variance in general distress. The findings suggest that ongoing collective ambiguous loss constitutes a substantial public health concern during war. Unresolved uncertainty surrounding the hostages stalls societal recovery, creating a state of collective limbo and posing a barrier to collective healing. Therefore, ambiguous loss following mass hostage‐taking should be considered a widespread societal stressor with consequences extending far beyond directly affected families.