An umbrella organization representing Israel’s hesder yeshivas criticized the military Monday over its decision to jail 16 religious soldiers who refused to take part in an operational patrol in the Gaza Strip because a female paramedic was assigned to their force, saying the punishment failed to account for a broader conflict between military service and religious observance.
The Association of Hesder Yeshivas, whose institutions combine advanced Jewish religious study with military service, issued its first response to the controversy Monday evening.
“The severe punishment imposed on the soldiers does not, in our view, reflect the broader picture that clearly emerges from an examination of the incident,” the association’s council said.
The controversy began after 16 soldiers from the Givati infantry brigade's Rotem Battalion refused to take part in an operational patrol in Gaza in a Namer, a heavily armored personnel carrier based on the Merkava tank, after learning that a female paramedic would accompany the force.
The refusal forced the military to cancel the operation. According to the IDF, the commanders of the force were prepared to carry out the mission, but the soldiers refused because of the paramedic’s presence. Their company commander tried to persuade them to reconsider, explaining the importance and urgency of the mission, while the brigade’s rabbi ruled that Jewish law permitted them to participate. The soldiers nevertheless refused the order.
Five soldiers identified as leaders of the refusal were sentenced to 10 days in military detention, while the other 11 received five-day sentences. Two of the five given the longer sentences will face an assessment committee before being allowed to return to combat duty. The battalion commander conducted the disciplinary proceedings and determined the punishment for each soldier based on his involvement.
In a letter addressed to hesder rabbis and students, the association said the confrontation was precisely the type of incident it had been warning the military about for an extended period.
“The latest incident in the Givati Brigade, in which soldiers declined to go out in a Namer with a female paramedic for operational duty, is the kind of event we have been trying for a long time to prevent,” the council wrote. It said the letter was issued only after the organization had thoroughly examined the circumstances and consulted rabbis, military officials and others.
Hesder yeshivas are a central institution in Israel’s religious Zionist community. Their students combine Torah study with military service and have long supplied significant numbers of soldiers and officers to combat units. Their integration into the military has also required the IDF to navigate religious restrictions governing interactions between men and women.
The military’s Joint Service Order is intended to regulate service by religious men and women alongside one another while balancing operational requirements with religious observance. The IDF said that under the order, soldiers who observe a religious lifestyle are entitled to carry out operational duties in a single-gender framework except in exceptional circumstances. In this case, the military said, operational requirements prevented the force from being structured that way.
The hesder association argued that the confrontation did not emerge in isolation.
“The continuing reality in which Torah-observant combat soldiers are forced on a daily basis to contend with the mixing of male and female soldiers during their service, under conditions that are inconsistent with Jewish law and their spiritual world and that do not comply with the Joint Service Order, brought us to the unfortunate incident in the Givati Brigade,” it said.
Hesder rabbis, the council said, have repeatedly warned about what they consider violations of the military’s rules on mixed-gender service, as well as personnel policies that fail to adequately take the needs of observant soldiers into account.
“The fact that soldiers are repeatedly forced to choose between their faith and their loyalty to the military places them in an impossible conflict that harms both the IDF and the soldiers themselves,” the council said.
The association called for a relationship built on mutual trust between commanders and religious troops.
It said commanders must understand their soldiers and accurately explain the circumstances they face, while the military must give clear priority in its policies, orders and actions to enforcing the Joint Service Order and allowing observant soldiers to serve according to their beliefs.
Archival: Weapons cache located by Givati troops during operational activity in Gaza
(Video: IDF)
But the organization also emphasized that the obligation works both ways.
“The soldier, for his part, must trust his commanders, perform his duties to the best of his ability and, in an operational situation in the field, obey the orders of his commanders after they have been approved by the operational authorities and the Military Rabbinate,” it said. “The IDF’s ability to continue functioning rests on this trust.”
The council described the soldiers involved as members of an outstanding unit that had fought bravely, with some of its members wounded in combat, and said they had previously operated under complicated circumstances involving both male and female soldiers.
The association acknowledged that the troops may have made the wrong decision but argued that their refusal should not be treated as an isolated disciplinary matter.
“Even if a mistake was made in that decision, it cannot be viewed as an isolated event disconnected from the broader challenging reality,” the council said.
The organization said its own investigation found that the incident had been preceded by a breakdown in trust between the soldiers and their immediate commanders. It alleged that this resulted from failures to adhere to Jewish law and military regulations as well as what it described as commanders presenting the soldiers with a misleading picture of the situation.
That breakdown, the association said, “contributed significantly” to the soldiers’ decision to refuse the mission. It called on the military to thoroughly investigate the circumstances and deal seriously with such problems.
The association concluded that, given those circumstances, the punishments were excessive.
“To our dear and beloved students, we say: You are fortunate for your courage on the battlefield and your dedication to preserving the sanctity of the camp,” the council wrote.
It said it welcomed what it described as the military’s desire to make significant changes to address existing problems and called on IDF officials to immediately correct what it termed serious deficiencies in implementing mixed-service regulations and in planning the composition of military units.
“The delicate partnership that exists in the IDF requires this process to continue immediately and consistently,” it said.
The dispute has drawn political attention as well.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a ministerial position in the Defense Ministry and leads the far-right Religious Zionist Party, publicly backed the 16 soldiers Monday.
“I support the soldiers who insisted on their right and obligation to serve in the IDF while preserving their values and their faith and while adhering to the Joint Service Order,” Smotrich wrote.
He said he had hoped the military would resolve the matter without political intervention.
“I prayed and hoped with all my heart that the IDF would come to its senses and avoid the need for my intervention, but since that did not happen, as a leader of religious Zionism I cannot sit idly by, and I will demand answers from the IDF on the matter,” he said.
The episode has also generated criticism from women serving in military medical and combat roles.
Alissa Krant, a reserve paramedic serving with the 271st Brigade, told ynet that she found the soldiers’ refusal frustrating, particularly because a paramedic assigned to an operational force is responsible for soldiers’ lives.
“When I go out on a mission, I come with medical training,” Krant said. “I am a professional, this is my job, and I am responsible for the lives of the people with me.”
She said a wounded soldier requiring emergency care would not be concerned about whether the medic treating him was a man or woman and argued that Jewish religious law itself gives precedence to saving a life.
Krant noted that women have served inside enemy territory alongside men throughout the war and said the soldiers’ refusal did not reflect the values of the military.
Still, she said she took no satisfaction from their imprisonment and believed their actions were motivated by religious belief rather than an intention to hurt anyone.
“I am glad the military is taking this issue seriously and putting it on the agenda,” she said, adding that punishment alone would not resolve the underlying tensions. Education and a better understanding of each person’s role in the military, she said, would be needed to bring about lasting change.
The incident highlights a longstanding challenge for the IDF as it seeks to accommodate growing numbers of religious and ultra-Orthodox troops while expanding women’s roles across the armed forces.
A soldier in the Givati Brigade’s parallel Tomer Company, a unit of ultra-Orthodox troops, told ynet that religious soldiers encounter a sharp change when moving from training, where separation between men and women is carefully maintained, to operational battalions.
He said a female paramedic was already serving alongside his company but that arrangements had been made to minimize friction, including keeping her out of the soldiers’ living quarters and placing her in a separate Namer during operations when possible.
“You can always find a solution,” he said. “It is very sad that in this case they did not manage to.”