Israel Defense Forces Opens Several Elite Units to Women

The Israel Defense Forces has opened up several elite units to women, beginning in November, it announced over the weekend. Female recruits will be able to apply to serve in the search and rescue Unit 669 and the Yahalom combat engineering unit, according to the IDF. Women who do not pass the physical and mental screening for the special units will be eligible for positions in other combat units that are already open to women. An IDF committee announced in July that more combat roles should be open to female recruits. There are already several fully integrated mixed-gender combat units such as the Caracal and Bardelas battalions, which operate on the borders with Egypt and Jordan, respectively. The decision comes more than two years after four female recruits petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court for the right to try out for combat units that were open only to men.