IDF spokesman defends female combat soldiers after TV segment criticizing female commander

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin says the contribution of female combat soldiers in the military is “not a slogan” but a “proven operational fact,” after the right-wing Channel 14 aired a segment last night questioning the capabilities of the army’s first woman to serve as a light infantry battalion commander.

In the Channel 14 report, Naama Zarbiv, head of the anti-feminist group Shovrot Shivyon, claimed that “all of the company commanders” under Lt. Col. Or Ben Yehuda — who until last year served as the commander of the Border Defense Corps’ Caracal Battalion — said that she did not “pass any operational threshold.”

“They say she dealt with terrorists on the Egyptian border,” Zarbiv said, downplaying an incident in 2014 in which Ben Yehuda — a company commander at the time — was wounded during a gun battle with smugglers, yet continued to command her troops.

She was later awarded a citation from then-head of the Southern Command Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman.

In a post on X, without explicitly mentioning Channel 14, Defrin says that Ben Yehuda received the citation “for her bravery,” and added that during the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, she “fought in the border communities and led troops under fire, with responsibility, courage, and inspiring leadership.”

“Over the years, and especially since October 7, women fighters have borne the burden of combat shoulder to shoulder. They operate on the front lines, cross enemy lines, lead offensive maneuvers, fight in Gaza, Syria, Judea and Samaria [West Bank], and Lebanon, and also operate far beyond the country’s borders, while risking their lives and saving lives,” he says.

“The contribution of women to combat is not a slogan… It is a proven operational fact. Therefore, it is difficult to understand, and even harder to accept, attempts to undermine their place, their contribution, and their necessity,” Defrin continues.

“The IDF is the people’s army. It is strong because of those who serve in it, women and men. Anyone who chooses to cast doubt on this is ignoring reality,” he adds.

According to data from 2025, some 8,500 female soldiers serve in combat roles, more than double the 2020 figure.

This is not the first time that the IDF has clashed with Channel 14, a conservative network that is overtly pro-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Last year, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir slammed the network’s “false, repeated, and baseless attacks” against then-military advocate general, Maj. Gen. Yifat-Tomer Yerushalmi.

And in 2024, the military accused Channel 14 of “inflammatory and defamatory content that harms the IDF,” after it broadcast a clip making fun of then-IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.