She underwent training for 18 months and will join future operations with the unit.
The force launched a pilot programme to recruit women into elite units, in particular the Sayeret Matkal, in December 2024. It aimed to look into expanding women’s service in combat roles, including within special forces units.
A spokesperson for the IDF said: “One female combat soldier, who successfully passed the preliminary screening process and met the required criteria, completed a tailored training track designed for the pilot.
"The training lasted more than a year and a half. The IDF commends the soldier for her significant and groundbreaking achievement.”
Sayeret Matkal was established in 1957 after Israel’s first special forces unit, Unit 101, was disbanded.
Modelled on the British SAS, including adopting its famous motto ‘Who Dares Wins’, the unit’s primary function is to conduct reconnaissance operations deep behind enemy lines.
Late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (2ndL) reviewing a Sayeret Matkal special unit platoon led by Lieutenant Ehud Barak, who would later himself become prime minister, in 1966 (Getty Images)GPO/AFP via Getty Images
It is best known for leading the raid on Entebbe Airport in 1976 to rescue hostages held in Uganda by Palestinian and German terrorists who had hijacked an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris.
Yonatan Netanyahu, the elder brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was a commander in the unit and was killed during the operation.
The raid was ultimately a success, with 102 of the 106 hostages rescued. Three were killed during the raid while a fourth, Dora Bloch, who had been hospitalised after choking on a chicken bone, was murdered in hospital by Ugandan soldiers.
All seven hijackers and more than 100 Ugandan soldiers, who had fired on Israeli forces during the operation, were killed. Netanyahu was the IDF’s only fatality.
The unit also completed several other high-profile missions under the command of future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Barak famously disguised himself as a woman in 1973 during a covert raid in Beirut, during which he eliminated several high-ranking members of the PLO.
More recently, though, the IDF has faced serious personnel shortages, having battled conflict on several fronts for more than two-and-a-half years. Previous estimates suggest that it has a shortfall of about 12,000 troops.
Israel is one of the only countries in the world to have mandatory conscription for women, who have been serving in the IDF since it was first established in 1948.
Their roles were initially restricted to areas such as nursing, instruction and administration, but many sectors opened up in the twenty-first century after years of activists campaigning for equality.
Today, though, men and women fight side by side, and women make up 60 per cent of all mixed-gender battalions, according to the IDF.
This story originally appeared in the JC Israel Briefing. You can sign up to receive the briefing daily here.
