“I looked up, and the warrant officer told me, ‘It’s a drone.’ We ran into the Namer, and in a split-second instinct the warrant officer tried to close the ramp — the armored personnel carrier’s rear door — but we didn’t make it, and the drone had already exploded at the entrance.”
That is how Lt. S., a career officer and commander of the technology and maintenance company in the Givati Reconnaissance Unit, described being moderately wounded in a first-person-view (PFV) drone blast in southern Lebanon earlier this month.
In recent months, FPV drones have become a significant strategic threat for the IDF, which has yet to find an effective response. Just this week, Warrant Officer (res.) Alexander Glovanyov, 47, of Petah Tikva, was killed in an attack by Hezbollah drones launched from Lebanon that exploded inside Israel near the border. On Thursday, three civilians were wounded in a drone strike in Rosh Hanikra, one of them critically.
“FPV drones are no small thing. They carry explosives that cause damage, and this is a real threat,” Lt. S. said. “It’s not something that can be dismissed just because it’s a drone and not a missile. The technology is very advanced, and just as our military is advancing, they also have advanced technology, and it is dangerous.”
They did not manage to close the door
Every IDF battalion includes a technology and maintenance company, part of the Technological and Logistics Directorate. The company is responsible for maintaining the battalion’s operational readiness, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, vehicles, small arms, ammunition and optical equipment.
The Givati Reconnaissance Unit’s maintenance company is currently operating in southern Lebanon as part of the unit’s activity there.
“At any given time, there is a maintenance presence inside Lebanon to provide support for our fighters — whether it’s fixing problems in Namer APCs or weapons inspectors repairing firearms that need servicing,” Lt. S. explained.
About two weeks ago, she was on standby duty with soldiers when she and another warrant officer from the unit spotted a Hezbollah drone overhead.
“We were inside the defensive position and went out toward a vehicle we were supposed to repair ahead of an operational activity by the fighters,” she recalled.
The two rushed into the Namer and tried to close the door, but did not manage in time.
Lt. S. suffered moderate injuries from shrapnel and the blast wave, while the warrant officer was lightly wounded.
“We did not really know how to assess our condition in those moments, but we knew we had to get out of there as quickly as possible because we feared more FPV drones would arrive,” she said.
The two, who remained conscious, managed to evacuate themselves to a nearby defensive position, where they received initial medical treatment. Shortly afterward, they were evacuated by helicopter to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center’s Ichilov Hospital and treated in the trauma ward.
Even during the ground evacuation from Lebanon into Israel, the threat continued. Another FPV drone was identified by IDF systems and intercepted.
Dr. Eyal Hashavia, director of the trauma division at Ichilov Hospital, said Lt. S. and the other soldier arrived suffering from blast injuries but were stable and fully conscious.
Dr. Eyal HashaviaPhoto: Sourasky Medical Center“They underwent a special trauma protocol for blast injuries, including a full-body CT scan and evaluation by an ear, nose and throat physician,” Hashavia said. “In this type of injury, it is essential to locate all shrapnel, diagnose acoustic blast injuries such as ringing in the ears or hearing loss, signs of smoke inhalation and internal blast injuries, usually to the lungs but also to the digestive tract.”
“At the end of the protocol, the team conducts a multidisciplinary discussion regarding which shrapnel fragments should be removed and the urgency of their removal,” he added.
After being hospitalized in the trauma department, Lt. S. was transferred to the oral and maxillofacial surgery department and underwent two operations to remove shrapnel from her face. One fragment was removed, while two remained because of their complex location. She was discharged Thursday night.
From ballet to armored vehicles
Before enlisting in the military, Lt. S. was a professional ballet dancer. She began dancing at age 3 and moved into professional ballet at age 10.
In 12th grade, she won an international competition, and one of the judges, the director of a dance company in Barcelona, offered her a contract and invited her to join the troupe.
“I decided to enlist in the military,” she said. “All my life I grew up on stories from the military. My mother was an educational NCO at Michve Alon, my father was a fighter in the Meitar unit, and my grandfather was a mortar platoon sergeant in Battalion 51 of the Givati Brigade. What went through my mind was that I could not be a citizen in Israel without taking part in the military.”
“On the surface, there is a huge dissonance between ballet and a military role. Ballet is perceived as delicate, all pink and ribbons. But ultimately, the things required of every elite athlete — determination, stubbornness, striving for contact, setting goals and meeting them — are exactly the things that helped me carry out my role as company commander in the best possible way,” she said.
“I will return to dancing after my discharge, not professionally, but ballet has always burned inside me.”
Lt. S. has served nearly five years in the military, most of them during wartime. “All my roles were in combat-support positions,” she said.
She began her service at Training Base 20 as an instructor in an ammunition inspection course, attended officers’ training school and later served as a logistics officer in the Egoz unit and the Nahal Brigade’s Battalion 931 before joining the Givati Reconnaissance Unit as commander of its technology and maintenance company.
“In every unit I experienced a completely different type of role,” she said. “I am grateful to the Givati Reconnaissance Unit for giving me the chance to experience the most meaningful role for me — leading the company, managing the work and seeing the achievements on the ground. It is stressful, but that is part of the role and part of the risk you take. To say my parents sleep peacefully at home? That would not be true.”
Although officially classified as combat support personnel rather than a combat soldier, Lt. S. stressed that many combat-support troops cross the border and assist frontline forces, exposing them to the same dangers.
“When I tell people I am combat support, they do not understand that I do not have combat training. People need to know there are many soldiers like me in the field,” she said.
Asked about the public debate over women serving in the military, she was dismissive.
“That discussion is pretty unnecessary. It is a discussion from the past, and we moved beyond it long ago,” she said. “There are female combat soldiers, commanders, doctors in special units, brigade commanders and senior officers who have broken records — and this discussion keeps us stuck in the past. Women are essential to the continued functioning of the military.”
She is expected to complete her service soon and is already planning to study law.