From Alerts to Airstrikes: Female Tank Crews Crush Terrorists in Historic Battle

On International Women’s Equality Day, August 26, 2025, we honour the courage of Israeli women in the IDF, whose vigilance and bravery during and after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack shaped Israel’s defense. Female surveillance soldiers at Nahal Oz base, part of the mostly female observer units, raised alarms about Hamas’s preparations, spotting unusual border activity. One soldier stated, “If the soldiers had been male, things would have looked different,” highlighting how their warnings were dismissed, possibly due to sexism, contributing to the attack’s devastating toll of 1,195 lives.

On that day, the all-female tank unit from the Caracal Battalion, stationed near Egypt, became the first women’s armoured crew in history to engage in combat. Woken at 6:30 a.m., they raced tanks at unprecedented speeds on civilian roads to Kibbutz Holit and Sufa, eliminating over 100 terrorists in 17 hours. Commander Hagar recalled, “My commander wakes me up and tells us there’s a terrorist infiltration. We didn’t really understand the enormity.” Michal, another commander, said, “We saw terrorists everywhere, and I told the driver, just run them down.” Colonel Shemer Raviv praised their impact: “The girls in those tanks fought in a most impressive way. They prevented the attack from moving further south.”

Other women shone brightly. Female medics treated hundreds under fire, while Oketz K-9 unit women used dogs to locate survivors in rubble. Since October 7, women’s enlistment in combat roles surged 20%, with four female navigators pivotal in 2024 airstrikes on Iranian targets. Lynne Myers’ Lev L’Chayalot initiative supports these women, hosting over 40 events with gift bags and letters from global supporters. Myers noted, “I saw these surveillance girls were not part of the barbecue, they were traumatized.” A female Skyrider said, “This war is an uprising of women in the army.” Despite trauma, with 60% of mixed-gender battalions now female, their resilience drives Israel’s multi-front war against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, proving women’s equality in courage and sacrifice.