A record number of 3,300 women enlisted into combat positions in the IDF in 2021. In 2020, some 2,900 women joined combat units, and 2,600 did so in 2019, military data shows.
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In the past six years, there has been a 250% rise in the number of women serving in combat units, largely in part of the military's efforts to make such roles more accessible to female recruits.
The units with the highest rates of female fighters are the Lions of the Jordan Valley Battalion, the Border Police, the Home Front Command, the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, and the Artillery Crops.
An IDF official said the military considers this to be a positive development and intends to create new high school tech programs to induct more women into its various cyber units.
The increase of women combat soldiers has not come without criticism though, as conservative voices in Israel accuse the military of endangering national security by including women to reach gender equality, ToI reported.
The IDF's response to such perspectives claims that the women are serving in the combat roles because they are needed there.
As the number of female soldiers in combat units increases, only a few have been granted senior official positions in the past year.
In March 2021, Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi announced that he intended to propose a plan that would see the number of female senior officers rise by 50% within the next five years.
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Earlier this year in July, Defense Minister Benny Gantz appointed a woman as the Israeli army's military advocate general, only the second female to hold the rank of major general in the country's history.
That same month, the Israeli army appointed its first-ever female deputy chief.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
