Israel places more women on the front line to solve its manpower problem

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Carrie Keller-Lynn, The Wall Street Journal 5 min Read 8 Jun 2025, 07:00 IST Female soldiers who were trained with men in Israeli military exercises last month. Summary female soldiers enter the battlefield in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria in ways that many previously thought impossible. Golan Heights days ago, an Israeli search and rescue team in Gaza spent hours drilling and setting aside the Rebar to restore the body of a fallen soldier buried under the ruin in Khan Younis. The combat unit followed a commando brigade in Gaza and restored the bodies of dead soldiers on the battlefield. It is a routine task in the Israeli army, but it was unique that this team mostly consists of women. “Me and a half ago I would never have dreamed of leading a fighting team in Lebanon or Gaza,” a small 25-year-old Major said. “I think the war has proven to all of us how much we are capable of.” She is one of a growing number of women serving on the front lines of Israel’s army. Before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacked the war, women were trained for battles, but usually left to protect within Israel’s borders or lead controls in the West Bank, which are considered less dangerous tasks. Now they are entering the battlefield in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria in ways that many previously thought impossible. One in five combat soldiers is today a woman, a relationship higher than many other modern Western military countries, says experts, and one that helps alleviate Israel’s acute manpower shortage after 20 months of war. Israel’s military is largely consisting of voluntary reservists and places the burden of war on regular working people, often in young families. Yet the full equality in the military is a challenge. The military cut a pilot program last week to integrate women into Israel’s most important infantry units for “expected low efficiency”, after finding that the 23 female pupils sustained injuries and that they are not expected to meet the required standards of fighting and physical fitness. “The Israeli army tried to recruit Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in his ranks as a solution to the manpower problem. The military and most of the country support the drafting of ultra-Orthodox men, who largely refuse to comply with a recent ruling of the Supreme Court that has overturned their years of release from the concept. In light of this, the integration of women to free up men to free men for others. But with many of the military’s core combat positions still closed to women or dominated by men, that means that the integration of women is only a partial solution to the manpower problem. Israel had one of the highest female representations among modern military countries for decades, which was a third overall, according to the recently available military information. It quickly moved women before the Foundation War in 1948 from a mix of socialist ideology, nationalism and necessity, experts say. Israel later scaled female roles back to the 1990s, when Border Guard units opened their ranks for female fighters and a Supreme Court case forced the Air Force to recruit female pilots. Just over half of the army battle rolls are open to women today and 90% of the overall roles. This high ratio of women in combat roles is unusual for modern military countries. The US, although it opened the most military roles for women, still has a lower total percentage of female powers at 18%, and therefore on the front lines. Israel is also one of the few countries that women are subject to a broad concept at the age of 18, just like men. Women today represent 21% of Israel’s fighting class forces, leaving 14% before the war and higher than 7% a decade earlier, according to Israeli military data. The military said it had about 4,500 female recruits in combat roles, driven by an expansion in offers to women and a larger female question to go into battle professions. “There are three reasons why military countries want to put women in combat roles: ideology, equality and necessity,” Jacob Stoil, chair of the applied history at the Modern War Institute at the US Military Academy in West Point, who emphasized that he spoke from his personal research and did not speak on behalf of the army. “You will see women who serve in combat roles if one of the three is the case,” he said, adding that all three of Israel apply. The search-and-rescue unit to which the young major belongs is a blend power that specializes in excavating collapsed structures and evacuating the wounded. Before the war, the unit was mostly driven to the West Bank’s West Bank security roles, which is also considered a less dangerous task. After October 7, the unit was sent to the front lines in Gaza and embedded with commando units. When the war expanded to Lebanon, women were also sent on the leading missions there. The military plans to expand the unit by opening a new company in August. Since the first time in 2008, women have grown to about 70% of its combat roles, officials in the unit said. Women’s duty in combat units has long been a debate in Israel. Some people believe that the risk of torture or rape as imprisonment puts women in a unique dangerous position. Others believe it hurts the male morale, and that it creates additional challenges for some religious men who do not want to be in the same unit as a woman. Perceptions began to change after the attack on October 7, when three female tank staff in the Caracal Battalion were intended to patrol the border of Israel with Egypt, but did not enter the enemy territory by chasing the desert to fight from Palestinian militants in and around Israeli communities. Israel’s army said it has about 4,500 female recruits in combat roles. The Israeli Army’s then head of staff Herzi Halevi noted at the time, saying that their “actions and fighting” against Hamas on October 7 answered the critics of women’s integration into fighting forces. The basis of the search-and-rescue unit in Zikim also attacked, and seven soldiers died of militants. Among the rescue workers sent to regain and secure the base was a 21-year-old lieutenant. She and other assistants kept militants for two days before tanks arrived to back up, she said. Shortly thereafter, she was attached to Israel’s equivalent to the Navy Seals as part of the initial phase of Israel’s land invasion, which helped them search for underground tunnels in Gaza. She doesn’t think she would have had such an opportunity before October 7. “I think they just realized how powerful we are,” she said. “They realized that we could actually do it.” Catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More topics #israel read next story