Gallant says Gaza war proves women can fill more military positions
Defense minister meets with female combat battalion commanders in honor of International Women’s Day, says their contribution to war effort will shape IDF for decades
The war in Gaza has demonstrated that women can fill any position they are capable of in the army, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told female combat battalion commanders on Friday in honor of International Women’s Day.
“The war has proven that women can be integrated into all positions they are capable of filling,” he told them. “The female combat soldiers’ successes on the battlefield will lead to a dramatic change in female military service.”
The female commanders, he said, successfully lead the soldiers under their command on land, in the air, in intelligence, on the homefront and at sea to wherever they are needed to complete whatever is required of them.
“Your effect on the IDF and the State of Israel is far-reaching,” Gallant said, adding that while their capabilities were not obvious before the war, as far as he was concerned, it was obvious now.
“War is where things get shaped for one or two generations forward, and what young soldiers are experiencing today will automatically affect the army for their whole service,” he said. “This war is a starting point, not only for fighting in the army and not only for women in the IDF, but for social-military relations.”
The defense minister added that in his opinion, this meant the IDF would continue to fully open all the positions to women who were capable of filling them and that there was still a lot of work to be done in this regard.
“We will see that thanks to you, there will be a dramatic change,” he concluded.
In December, the IDF said it had seen a surge in female soldiers seeking to enlist into combat units in the wake of October 7 when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 253.
During the attack, which launched the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, female soldiers were directly involved in battles to defend against the massive numbers of invading terrorists, including an all-female tank unit that fought for hours, killing dozens of attackers along the border and in communities who victims of Hamas’s onslaught. Female soldiers were also among those killed by Hamas and among those taken hostage alongside their male counterparts.
In recent decades the IDF has been slowly opening up various combat roles, sometimes voluntarily, but other times at the behest of the courts.
Currently, female soldiers can serve in tanks in the IDF’s Border Defense Corps, as part of an all-female tank company in the Caracal mixed-gender light infantry battalion, which operates along the Egyptian border — not in wars or in fighting deep behind enemy lines. It was that tank company that was called into action on October 7.
Critics of gender integration in the military often decry it as a dangerous social experiment with potential ramifications for national security, while defenders generally trumpet it as a long-needed measure, one that has already been implemented in many Western countries.
Detractors note that some requirements for female combat soldiers have been lowered — which they say is a sign that effectiveness is being sacrificed — and that servicewomen suffer stress injuries at a higher rate.
The army says it is allowing more women to serve in combat positions out of practical considerations, not due to a social agenda, saying it requires all the woman and manpower available to it.
