In first, IDF says female officer to command Navy warship |
A female naval officer will take command of one of the Israeli Navy’s missile boats for the first time, the military announced on Wednesday.
Lieutenant Commander “Resh” — identified only by her rank and first initial in Hebrew — will assume command over one of the Missile Ship Fleet’s Sa’ar 4.5-class missile boats in a handover ceremony on Thursday.
The military said the move “constitutes a significant milestone in the operational and command activity” of the Navy, and “reflects the commitment to excellence, professionalism and equal opportunity” in the Israel Defense Forces.
The missile boat that Resh would command participated in several “complex” operations in recent years, the IDF said, including a large-scale operation to destroy the former Syrian regime’s naval fleet in December 2024, the elimination of top Hamas official Ismail Barhoum in March 2025, and the killing of a top commander in Hezbollah’s aerial forces in November 2024, as well as the interception of aerial threats.
Dozens of Navy sailors serve aboard the missile boat, both men and women.
Resh joined the military in 2016 as a naval cadet and has served in several roles in the Navy, including deputy commander of a missile boat and commander of a Dvora-class patrol boat in the 916th Patrol Squadron.
In remarks published by the military, Navy chief Vice Adm. David Sa’ar Salama said that Resh’s appointment to command the missile boat was “a professional choice that reflects excellence, leadership, responsibility and courage, which you have demonstrated time and again in stormy seas.”
The IDF’s announcement came amid recent calls by religious activists and leading rabbis against the military’s plans to integrate women into more combat roles. The IDF had said it urgently needs more recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.
The army has insisted that it is allowing more women to serve in combat positions out of practical considerations, not due to a progressive social agenda.
According to IDF data from 2025, some 8,500 female soldiers served in combat roles — including in the Navy — an increase of nearly 240 percent compared to 2015. In 2025, women made up 21.2% of combat troops.
Critics of gender integration in the military often decry it as a dangerous experiment with potential ramifications for national security, while defenders hail it as a long-needed measure that puts Israel on par with other Western countries.
Detractors note that some requirements for female combat soldiers have been lowered — which they say is a sign that effectiveness is being sacrificed — and that servicewomen suffer stress injuries at a higher rate.
However, the heroic and effective conduct of female combat soldiers during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and the ensuing war seems to have significantly boosted the argument for further integration into combat roles, as well as high turnout among female draftees.
The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits — mostly combat troops — due to the strain caused by the war.
Legislation being laid out in the Knesset would continue to grant military service exemptions to full-time yeshiva students — some 80,000 of whom are currently eligible for military service — while ostensibly increasing conscription among graduates of Haredi educational institutions.
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IDF Israel Defense Forces