{"id":596910,"date":"2026-08-26T20:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/596910\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T20:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:44:09","slug":"idf-soldiers-set-for-hearing-after-refusing-apc-with-female-paramedic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/596910\/","title":{"rendered":"IDF soldiers set for hearing after refusing APC with female paramedic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soldiers from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/givati-brigade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Givati Brigade&#8217;s<\/a> Rotem Battalion refused to board an armored personnel carrier with a female paramedic on Wednesday and are expected to face disciplinary proceedings over the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The Rotem Battalion conducted an operational drill overnight on Wednesday, during which the force was required to use an armored personnel carrier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;In accordance with the Joint Service Order, soldiers who maintain a religious way of life are entitled to carry out operational activity in a gender-segregated framework, except in exceptional cases,&#8221; the IDF said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;In the incident described, the force refused to carry out the operational activity, and as a result, the activity was canceled. The incident is being investigated, and command measures will be taken in accordance with the findings.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The incident was brought to the attention of commanders in the battalion, who decided that the soldiers would be tried in a disciplinary hearing. The IDF said that they had not yet faced proceedings.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Women in an IDF combat unit help one of their fellow fighters during a training exercise\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"822\" height=\"829\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/images.jpost.com\/image\/upload\/f_auto,fl_lossy\/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822\/439265\"\/>Women in an IDF combat unit help one of their fellow fighters during a training exercise (credit: REUTERS)<\/p>\n<p>In June, amid the public and legal debate surrounding the integration of women into combat roles, the IDF issued a clarification stating that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/high-court-of-justice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">High Court of Justice<\/a> had not ordered the recruitment of female combat soldiers to the Armored Corps, but had only instructed the military to conduct a pilot program on the issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The IDF stressed that the pilot was intended as a preliminary examination of the possibility and that the trial did not commit to fully integrating women into such roles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After approximately two and a half years of fighting on multiple fronts and an expansion of missions, the IDF needs every <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\/article-899710\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">male and female<\/a> combat soldier,&#8221; the military said in its statement at the time.<\/p>\n<p>IDF begins to integrate women in combat in pilot programs<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">After the announcement that the pilot would take place, hesder yeshivas said they would stop sending their students for enlistment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Shortly afterward, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir addressed the issue at a conference of the IDF Employees Organization, referring to a letter issued by rabbis affiliated with the hesder yeshivas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;The IDF is the people&#8217;s army, and therefore there is paramount importance in integrating all sectors of the population into its ranks, especially in the combat array,&#8221; Zamir said, emphasizing what he described as the army&#8217;s unique character.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">In his remarks, Zamir focused on the logistical and social challenges involved in such integration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This complex integration of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/female-israeli-soldiers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">women in the military<\/a> will always be carried out in a manner that allows one sector of the public to serve alongside another, and not at its expense,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Several days later, during a discussion on preparations for the pilot program, the chief of staff stressed that there was no intention to place men and women together in tank crews, either during training or during operational missions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;If the trial is successful, the integration of women will be carried out within a designated framework, at least at the company level,&#8221; Zamir said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">According to Zamir, adjustments would be required when operating as part of a combat team, in accordance with the IDF&#8217;s Joint Service Order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soldiers from the Givati Brigade&#8217;s Rotem Battalion refused to board an armored personnel carrier with a female paramedic&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[78537,12186,85,46,269975,43,195316],"class_list":["post-596910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-givati-brigade","tag-haredi-draft","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israeli-women-soldiers","tag-news","tag-women-in-israeli-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}