All-woman Israeli tank crew fight
Part of the Battle of Sufa,
the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel,
and 2023 Israel–Hamas war

Merkava Mk 4 Barak
Date7 October 2023
Location
Holit and Sufa, Israel
Belligerents

•  Israel


On October 7, 2023, seven female Israeli tank crew members from the Caracal battalion fought against Gazans who they alleged were Hamas[1] continuously for 17 hours straight. According to the IDF, the young women were the first ever female tank crews in the West to engage in active combat, lasting for 17 hours.[1] According to Israel, they killed 50 militants.[1]

Background

The recruitment of women into combat positions in the Israel Defense Forces was rather slow.[2] The process accelerated after 1995, when a young soldier, Alice Miller, asked the Supreme Court of Israel to allow her to enroll in pilot training.[2] As a result of the landmark decision, although Miller personally did not make it into the 3% of those who qualified, more combat positions in the army became available to female soldiers.[2] Five years later, in 2000, the first defense Caracal battalion was created.[2]

On October 27, 2022, the Israel Defense Forces announced that it had created all-female tank crews, and they had successfully completed two years of testing.[3] The company is armed with Merkava IV tanks and is defending the Egyptian border.[3] Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi noted: “I believe that women tank crews will carry out the border protection mission professionally and with great success and will form a significant part of the IDF’s operational efforts.”[3]

Course of events

On October 7, 2023, on the holiday of Simchat Torah, militants presumed to be from the terrorist group Hamas attacked Kibbutz Holit near the southern Gaza Strip in a surprise attack on Israel and killed at least 13 people.

The tank crew of the Caracal battalion, under the command of Captain Carney, was in the morning of October 7 on the border with Egypt at the Nitsana base, approximately 40 km south of the Gaza Strip.[2] Having received the order, the military, in two Merkava IV tanks and a Namer armored vehicle, drove along Highway 232 north near the border with the Gaza Strip.

According to the recollections of senior sergeant Tal-Sara, after seeing Kibbutz Sufa blown up and broken IDF armored personnel carrier and the wounded soldiers around it, and then after heavy fire from three directions, she began to realize that they were in a state of war.[2] She and the other 20-year-old young female teenagers had not received a special course in firing the 50-caliber Katlanit remote weapons and had to improvise and learn on the ground.[2] They gave battle to dozens of Hamas members who had AK-47s and RPGs.[2][4]

Subsequently, they were joined by two more Merkava tanks.[2] One tank was left near the gap in the border fence to block the movement of Hamas.[5][2] Subsequently, the second tank and armored vehicle were among dozens of members of Hamas with RPGs[4] and other weapons. At the height of the battle, Carney called a third tank from the Nitzana base under the command of Sergeant Ophir, this tank arrived two hours later. Some of the Hamas members were killed and remaining Hamas members retreated back behind the border fence.[5]

One of the Merkava tanks under the command of Lieutenant Michal began to help liberate Kibbutz Sufa from hundreds of Hamas members, and as a result, her team, after more than 6 hours of battle, destroyed dozens of Hamas members.[2]

At the same time, the company commander, Captain Karni, moved from an armored personnel carrier to a tank and fought with the team in and around Kibbutz Holit, eliminating dozens of Hamas members.[2] Then a tank under the command of Karmi drove through the closed main gate of the kibbutz and, seeing two members of Hamas in ambush on the side of the road, simply ran over them.[2][1] They were able to repel the attack on the kibbutz and prevent the continuation of the Hamas attack on the south of the country. In total, the battle with the participation of Carney's company lasted about 17 hours.[2][1] Seven 20-year-old Israeli tank crews took part in the battle: Hagar, Hila, Tal-Sara, Michal, Karni, Ophir and Tamar, who allegedly killed 50 members of Hamas.[2][1] Their last names have not been disclosed for privacy related security reasons.[2]

Reaction

According to the IDF, the young women were the first ever female tank crews in the West to engage in active combat, which lasted 17 hours.[1] As noted by the director of the Australian Defense Association, Neil James, this was most likely the first time in history that a female armored unit participated in a war.[6]

As Avigdor Liberman noted on November 26, 2023:[7]

Every day, starting October 7, we learn new heroic stories about brave and determined women who saved the lives of many Israelis. I want to thank the young tank girls who fought with unprecedented courage and bravery on that Black Saturday and saved the entire Kibbutz Holit, killing dozens of terrorists. Their story is nothing short of inspiring. Hagar, Hila, Tal, Michal, Karni, Ophir and Tamar - you are the heroes of Israel!

On November 28, 2023, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi met with these tank crews[8] and emphasized:

As you know, in recent years there has been a debate in Israel about whether women should serve in combat units. I tell you: Sometimes, to explain something, you need to talk a lot. But I think that in this case we received an answer without words, an answer through action and struggle.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "All-woman Israeli Tank Crews Killed 50 Terrorists Over 17 Hours of Combat on October 7". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2023-11-26. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 All-Female IDF Tank Crew Makes History During October 7 Battles at Israel
  3. 1 2 3 "IDF to deploy all-female tank crews after two-year trial deemed a success". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 2023-11-28. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  4. 1 2 Четыре израильские танкистки — первые женщины в мировой истории, сражавшиеся в танковом бою на протяжении 17 часов подряд
  5. 1 2 Интервью с участницами боя на канале Кешет 12 (иврит, русские субтитры), оригинал с английскими субтитрами on YouTube
  6. ↑ "'My Insta blew up': Feminism and tank warfare in Israel". 27 November 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-11-27. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  7. ↑ Женщины-танкисты — воплощение храбрости и мужества
  8. ↑ Халеви: «Женщины-танкисты 7 октября заставили замолчать сомневающихся»
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