Three soldiers from the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion refused an operational order in Gaza overnight on Wednesday after learning a female paramedic would be aboard the Namer armored personnel carrier, forcing the military to cancel the patrol — even after their company commander and the brigade rabbi both approved the mission.
The soldiers, who serve in a hesder yeshiva platoon that combines combat service with Torah study, were part of a reconnaissance company conducting a patrol. Under the IDF’s Joint Service Order, religious soldiers are entitled to operate in a single-gender framework “except in exceptional cases.” In this instance, commanders said the operational need overrode the accommodation.
A soldier in the unit told the media the female paramedic is permanently assigned to their company and that arrangements are normally made to keep them separate — she does not enter the same Namer, and they ride in two different vehicles. “But the operational need overrode the ability to carefully tailor the composition of the force,” he said.
The incident comes at a tense moment: the IDF is preparing pilot programs to allow women into combat roles, and the chief of staff has said any integration would be “within a designated framework, at least at company level” — not mixed-crew tank platoons. The Givati incident will now face disciplinary hearings.
Reported by The Times of Israel, citing the IDF, Ynet, and Arutz Sheva.