Overview
- Dozens of Religious Zionist rabbis and yeshiva heads, meeting Tuesday at Rabbi Chaim Druckman's home in Merkaz Shapira, unanimously ruled that a strictly observant soldier cannot serve in a mixed-gender combat unit.
- Several senior figures, including Rabbis Yaakov Medan and Zalman Melamed, said their institutions will not send students to the Armored Corps as long as tank crews could include women.
- The gathering responded to a High Court ruling that requires the IDF to launch a pilot integrating female soldiers into Armored Corps units in the coming months.
- IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said women are an inseparable part of the military and that their integration is operationally necessary, signaling no plan to exclude them.
- Rabbis warned the pilot could sideline observant soldiers and strain unit cohesion, pointing to battlefield crew reshuffles that mix personnel and to likely ripple effects on the large pool of religious reservists.