Israel Is Putting More Women on the Front Line to Help Fix Its Manpower Problem

Days ago, an Israeli search-and-rescue team in Gaza spent hours drilling through concrete and plying aside rebar to recover the body of a fallen soldier buried under rubble in Khan Younis.

- Carrie Keller-Lynn

Days ago, an Israeli search-and-rescue team in Gaza spent hours drilling through concrete and plying aside rebar to recover the body of a fallen soldier buried under rubble in Khan Younis. The combat unit had been following a commando brigade in Gaza, recovering the bodies of dead soldiers on the battlefield. It is a routine task in the Israeli military, but it was unique that this team was made up mostly of women.

"A year and a half ago, I would never have dreamed of leading a combat team within Lebanon or Gaza," said a petite 25-year-old major. "I think the war proved to all of us how much we are capable of."

She is among a growing number of women serving on the front lines of Israel's military. Before the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that spurred the war, women were trained for combat, but left mostly to guard within Israel's borders or run checkpoints in the West Bank, considered less dangerous tasks.

Now, they are entering the battlefield in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria in ways many previously thought impossible. Today, one in five combat soldiers is a woman, a ratio higher than many other modern Western militaries, experts say, and one which helps relieve Israel's acute manpower shortage after 20 months of war.

roles. But with many of the military's core combat positions still closed to women or dominated by men, integrating women means it is only a partial solution to the manpower problem.