In first, IDF appoints woman to command search and rescue battalion

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday for the first time appointed a female officer to command a Home Front Command search and rescue unit.

Lt. Col. Yarden Shukron Yifrah, a mother of three, will command the 498th Shahar (Dawn) Battalion, tasked with rescuing civilians in events such as rocket attacks, earthquakes, and other serious incidents and disasters.

In the past year, the battalion, which is also combat trained, has mostly been operating in the West Bank, including conducting arrests of wanted Palestinians and seizing weapons. Soldiers of the unit have also been securing settlements and roads used by Israelis in the West Bank.

According to the IDF, the battalion had foiled at least five terror attacks against civilians in recent months. During the round of fighting against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip last month, the battalion was stationed in the southern city of Sderot to assist the local population amid rocket attacks.

“The phrase ‘to be a free people in our land’ takes on additional meaning for me when I imagine the assistance the Shahar Battalion will provide to the residents of Israel when ordered,” Shukron Yifrah said at a ceremony marking her entry into the role.

“Together we will lead a fighting and rescue force to victory,” she added.

File: Home Front Command search and rescue troops at the scene of a fatal rocket attack in Sderot on May 12, 2021. (Gili Yaari /Flash90)

Recent years have seen a growing number of women enter combat units and other roles previously held exclusively by men.

In June, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi nominated the military’s first female combat brigade commander, Col. Reut Rettig-Weiss. In May the military said women would be allowed to serve in elite helicopter-borne search and rescue outfit Unit 669 for the first time. The IDF also recently nominated a female officer to head one of the military’s light infantry battalions, and another to command a battalion in the air defense array, both for the first time.

Last year, Kohavi announced plans to increase the number of female senior officers in the IDF by 50 percent within the next five years.