As women in the IDF continue to break barriers, this group of twenty completed the rigorous, brutal Yahalom combat engineering course—cementing their place among the army’s most elite soldiers.
Major R., who enlisted in 2016 and rose through key naval combat roles, has been appointed the first woman to command a missile ship in the Israel Defense Forces, now leading a vessel that took part in major operations against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syrian forces during the war.
Lieutenant O is making history as the first female mechanics officer on the Sa’ar 6 patrol corvettes, following 2.5 years of intensive training at the Naval Academy to prepare for life at sea.
In some battalions, women constitute over 60% of personnel, and some even serve aboard Israel’s main battle tanks, the Merkava.
‘I trust the female tank personnel to conduct border defense missions with professionalism and great success,’ says IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi.
