Female soldiers in combat

‘We're lone soldiers, but we're not lonely’: How the IDF supports fighters without families

“Olim (immigrant) soldiers who come from abroad to Israel do it purely out of a sense of Zionism and because they really want to take part in helping Israel and helping the IDF.”

Staff Sergeant Oren Metzuyanim, a 21-year-old lone soldier at the main rehearsal of the 78th anniversary Independence Day ceremony, held at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, on April 19, 2026.
Female IDF soldiers work on a tank; illustrative.

Equality NGO Forum Dvorah slams hesder yeshivot boycott over women's integration in tank units

DF armored forces at a staging area in southern Israel near the border with Gaza. January 01, 2024.

Editor's Notes: High Court ruling on women in tanks deepens religious divide in IDF - comment

Soldiers from an artillery unit stationed near the Israel-Lebanon border during the ongoing war with Iran and Hezbollah, March 15, 2026; illustrative.

In first, woman completes IDF Sayeret Matkal course, set to join operational service


Barak lambasts Smotrich in tweet about female combat soldiers

The former Prime Minister criticized the minister of transportation, tweeting that female soldiers who serve alongside men "Do things that are vitally more important than anything he will ever do."

Ehud Barak announces the formation of a new party on June 26 at Beit Sokolov in Tel Aviv

First six female recruits enlist to serve on Navy's new Sa'ar 6 missile ships

The soldiers will serve on the Sa'ar 5 until the INS Magen becomes operational in 2019.

The six female recruits who with serve aboard the Sa'ar missile ship

Mixed responses to Bennett’s plan to encourage IDF enlistment

“We are for meaningful service in the IDF, regardless of political views and so if there are programs to encourage youth to IDF enlistment we support those programs,” said one parent.

Israeli soldiers wear their combat gear near a shelter at Kerem Shalom crossing August 1, 2014.

Stop using double standards against female IDF soldiers

Extremist religious beliefs that women have no place outside of the home bear no relevance to this conversation.

A female IDF soldier shaking out a blanket during a week-long survival course for women in the infantry at an undisclosed location in Israel

Hands off women conscripts

Just this past week activists posted a large billboard- looking ad alongside the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, which claims that Israel is stronger without mixed units.

IDF female soldiers training

Liberman praises IDF service by religious women, pans Orthodox dodgers

Israeli defense ministers says practice of permanent Torah study by Orthodox Jews at expense of army service, employment reflects "fake reality."

CARACAL BATTALION soldiers march in the Negev in 2014.

A (religious) woman’s place

The controversial sentiments about women in the army as expressed by some leading national-religious rabbis recently might indicate a new culture war.

IDF women soldiers marching near Jerusalem, 1969

Israeli Pride Times Two: LGBT and female combat soldiers

"It’s all about a person’s ability, not gender or sexual orientation.”

The Israeli Pride Times Two event at Beit HaChayal

Sisters in arms: Female veterans from the US and Israel combat trauma together

Heroes to Heroes launches a pilot trip exclusively for female veterans.

A dance performance by Adam Greenfeld and Tal Galor at Beit Halochem, Tel Aviv

A Lion’s Pride: An inside look at coed IDF combat unit preparing for battle

As Israel faces terror in the West Bank, a new coed group of combat soldiers finish training for their unique role in the Jordan Valley.

The IDF's new coed combat units are the result of a long struggle for the integration of women into fighting roles in the army