IDF tally says military recorded 2,420 reports of sexual misconduct in 2025

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee receives a report showing that the IDF recorded 2,420 reports of sexual misconduct in “military-related circumstances” in 2025.

The data is presented during a committee discussion held in accordance with a law passed last year requiring the IDF, Israel Police and Israel Prison Service to annually report sexual harassment figures as well as how such cases are handled.

According to the figures presented by the IDF chief of staff’s gender affairs adviser, Brig. Gen. Rozital Aviv, the reports covered a broad range of incidents, from verbal harassment to severe physical assaults, with 71% having been deemed below the criminal threshold.

Seventy percent involved male perpetrators and female victims. Of the complainants, 1,798 concerned conscript soldiers, 188 concerned reservists, 140 concerned career officers, and 108 concerned noncommissioned officers.

According to the data, 234 criminal complaints were filed in 2025, leading to 42 indictments and 21 disciplinary proceedings. Meanwhile, 59% of complaints were handled through the chain of command rather than criminal proceedings.

A Knesset spokesperson says in a statement that the military has seen a consistent increase in reports of sexual misconduct over the past decade, which the IDF attributes both to the growth in troop numbers and to growing confidence among service members in the army’s ability to handle complaints effectively.

Aviv seems to link the rise in cases with the strain placed on the military while operating under an “intense and prolonged campaign” for more than two and a half years since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks, warning that the operational strain is no longer temporary.

“We understand that the operational effort is not temporary… this is essentially our new routine,” she tells lawmakers. “Therefore, we are making adjustments both in how we operate and in how we approach protection measures.”

Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari, who sponsored the reporting law, says the numbers may partially reflect exhaustion among troops after prolonged fighting.

“Our male and female soldiers are working very hard, and this deterioration is troubling,” she says.

Acting committee chair MK Sharon Nir says the issue is directly tied to military discipline and values, stressing that there must be “zero tolerance for sexual harassment” in the armed forces.