Imagine you are a fighter in an IDF elite unit. In two days, a critical mission in Lebanon awaits. Before the operation, you are taken for a final drill at one of the military's training grounds – to sharpen your combat edge and make sure every shot you fire hits the enemy's kill zone dead on.
You enter the training compound according to procedure. Everything is advancing smoothly, including the preparations for commendation. Then, in the very last room, a split second before the finish line, a corporal leaps from a hiding spot and shouts at you, "Fire, fire." That's it – you've been neutralized.
Congratulations. You have just had a close encounter with one of the IDF's enemy simulators – a soldier who outsmarted you and caught you in a moment of inattention. From that incident, you are meant to emerge stronger and equipped with lessons that will sharpen your performance in real combat, against a real enemy.
"We were waiting for a force inside a large building, and the fighters simply didn't check one of the rooms. I shouted 'Fire, fire' first," recalled Cpl. S. (19), a soldier in the IDF's Red Unit, which simulates enemy forces. "A few months later, I was on guard duty at a base with some fighters, and one of them said to me, 'I remember you from that drill – you and your friends really caught us off guard.'"
The Red Unit was established six years ago and comprises 80 female fighters. Over the course of three and a half months, they undergo specialized training, and their primary mission is to get inside the mind of a Hamas terrorist or a Hezbollah fighter, understand how the enemy operates and what drives him, and then simulate him as realistically as possible in drills against IDF forces.
"When I enlisted, I didn't know the Red Unit existed," 2nd Lt. S. (21), a company commander in the unit, said. "My assignment sheet said 'enemy-forces simulator,' so at least I figured I wouldn't be sitting in an office every day and that I'd be able to influence the combat readiness of fighters in the field. It sounded cool to get to know the enemy, to understand how he operates. I was excited, and in training, a whole new world was opened up to me."
Q: What do you mean?
"You start with the foundations of the enemy's culture, you study the balance of power in Lebanon, and gradually you work your way into their military, their hierarchy. How their command structure works, and what the parallel is to IDF units. How they operate as fighters, what training they go through, their standard operating procedures, and their combat techniques. You get into the smallest details, so that you really absorb what it means to be a Hezbollah fighter or a Hamas operative."
Q: Now that you see what is happening in Lebanon, do you analyze the situation?
"I always connect it somehow to things I know and draw conclusions. It's not that I have more knowledge than other commanders, but because I studied Hezbollah's characteristics, I always bring my own perspective. In the end, Hezbollah's primary goal is to kill as many soldiers and Israelis as possible, and that connects to what is happening in the field today. That is their central aim, and I always keep that in mind. There is no mercy in them."
Dark camouflage uniforms
The unit's name is no accident. In the IDF, "blue" represents our forces and "red" represents the enemy. To embody their roles properly, the unit's soldiers walk around their base in southern Israel wearing red insignia, and in drills they sometimes carry Kalashnikov rifles, just like Hamas operatives. During training, they wear camouflage uniforms – darker shades on defense, lighter shades on offense.
"The uniforms might look impressive from the outside, but they're not flexible, not fun, and not comfortable," 2nd Lt. A. (20), a platoon commander in the unit, explained. "People always think we're in a prison, until we explain what we do."
The sound of real gunfire
Until the Red Unit was established, infantry companies in the IDF used to detach a platoon from their own ranks to simulate enemy forces – a practice that disrupted training by reducing their available strength. The Red Unit now functions as the real thing, and its soldiers are trained to make life difficult for IDF troops, to surprise and neutralize.
"There are drills where we are given free rein, and the girls can plan a full combat procedure – how they position themselves, flank, and surprise," 2nd Lt. S., the company commander, said. "Personally, I've surprised fighters many times, and that is the meaning of this role, because when a fighter is caught off guard, he is supposed to do a self-assessment afterward on what he needs to improve before entering Gaza or Lebanon. They might be a little angry at us, but that's the point. You can't afford to underestimate the threat. If we do, there will be, God forbid, another October 7. That's what I believe."
Q: What do you tell the soldiers before a drill opens?
"To show initiative and aggression – to be fired up. To give everything to be the best, as if we genuinely want to win on our end, because that's the only way we can provide a real challenge. If we don't push the fighters and we just coddle them and play nice, then we haven't done our job. The girls really want to win, and they even get upset when they're outmaneuvered. They really get into the role."
The Red Unit consists of two companies. One focuses on enemy simulation in the north, with a concentration on Hezbollah; the other focuses on Hamas in the south. Every six months, the companies rotate to keep them well-rounded.
IDF units entering into operational activity or preparing for a raid against the enemy invite the Red Unit to challenge their fighters. From the outside, it sometimes looks like a game in which an IDF force advances late at night into "Little Gaza" (a training complex), raids a building with caution, and is required to remain alert and on edge – so that none of the enemy simulators can ambush it from a planned position.
Some drills are conducted with blank rounds – known in the IDF as "wet drills" – which produce the sound of real gunfire, while others are "dry drills" in which fighters and simulators make do with shouting "Fire, fire." In both cases, a neutral referee determines who fired first – the fighter or the simulator.
"Think about what it's like to sit in 'Little Gaza' and know that in every building there are several entry points, and you're just constantly thinking about where the fighters will come from and from which direction you can hear them," said Cpl. S., a soldier in the unit. "All the while, I have to plan where it's best to advance and where it would be best to hide. It's pressure – but it's also fun."
2nd Lt. A., the platoon commander, described the experience. "In 'Little Gaza' you really feel like you're in Gaza, and there's darkness all around. I hear fighters talking, and my goal is to intercept them and win, so I hide in a corner or behind a bush and don't move to avoid making noise. I think about the smallest possible details. This role teaches you to question everything, and to never say, 'It's fine, the fighter will come from the direction they said.' You have to open your mind and accept that a soldier can attack from anywhere, and the main thing is that I'm ready. Then, in the middle of an engagement, there's shouting, and you really go all out. They fire blank rounds and throw smoke grenades, and the adrenaline flows. It really feels like war."
Q: How do you plan before an operation?
"We draw up a combat procedure, but in the field, things don't always look as expected, and many times we make quick decisions – for example, whether to run here or hide there. We improvise constantly, because in the end, you're supposed to surprise. And if I see a fighter running, I'll step off the route I planned."
It is not uncommon for the "bad guys" to win after an ambush they laid for IDF fighters works as intended, and it has already happened that the battalion commander on the other side – a decorated, experienced fighter – showed up at the end of a drill to pat shoulders and commend the simulators. "Sometimes it's frustrating to play only the enemy's side, and the goal isn't to feel like I've won," explained 2nd Lt. S., the company commander. "In the end, the goal is that our fighters win and are prepared, but alongside that, there's obviously a personal drive to succeed at the role. A kind of mixed feeling. Even when fighters get angry, I take it as something positive. It might be disappointing for them, but it's also what's supposed to teach them."
Cpl. S. knows what the company commander means. "I feel meaningful when I see the startled face of a fighter after I managed to surprise him, because for him too it eventually sinks in, 'She killed me – it was just a drill, but this is something that can happen in reality.' They understand that they've been given a chance to correct something right before the real battle."
2nd Lt. A. is listening from the side, goes quiet for a few seconds, and then says, "At the beginning of my time in the unit, there was a drill in which we split into pairs in an isolated forest and challenged fighters, each time from a different position. For some reason, the face of one of the reserve fighters was burned into my memory, even though we never actually spoke. At the end of that week, we went home, and when we came back to the base on Sunday, I came across his face on one of the news websites – he had fallen in Lebanon."
A "terrorist" under the house
2nd Lt. S., the most senior of the three, enlisted in August 2022. She is convinced that October 7 was a turning point for the Red Unit. "I had just finished an officer's supplementary course, and on October 9 I arrived at the unit as an officer," she said. "It was very hard then to be an enemy simulator, because until then we had treated it with a kind of lightness and fun – Hezbollah and Hamas – and suddenly simulating them became psychologically complicated, because you know that in the drill the goal is to 'kill' IDF soldiers, right after so many had been killed in reality. At the same time, we knew that this was our purpose and that we needed to be better than ever, because this was the moment we had trained for. It was hard, but it was very powerful for the soldiers."
Q: Do you remember the first drills during the war?
"Already on October 10, we had a drill. The country was gripped by a difficult atmosphere, but I have to say that the very act of meeting with fighters and sitting with them – even for a cigarette after a drill – strengthened us enormously, and I'm sure it did the same for them. Instead of being at home watching the news, I felt I was involved in something intense, giving everything I had. Nobody thought a war would break out, and it was like a switch that had been flipped – everyone's sense of purpose surged. There are many soldiers who do the same thing every day without knowing the outcomes of their actions, and here we could feel the results firsthand. Above all, we saw the motivation of the fighters, how driven they were. It was remarkable."
2nd Lt. S. and 2nd Lt. A. recalled that after the war broke out, they took part in a major drill held in one of the communities, in which they simulated terrorists taking over houses in a residential area. "It was a drill with a special unit," said 2nd Lt. S. "I was a 'terrorist' under a house in which there were hostages, and the fighters had to 'kill' us. It was complicated to shout 'Fire, fire, fire' while wearing camouflage uniforms in a civilian environment, because people were watching from balconies, and it could have frightened them. Only on second thought did I feel that we were there for them – training fighters to protect them."
Since the surprise of October 7, the unit has repeatedly surprised soldiers at bases, testing the alertness of guards to ensure vigilance does not slip again. "There were drills in which we tried to 'capture' bases or outposts," said 2nd Lt. A. "We literally raided them in the early morning after splitting into teams and planning each team's role. Scenarios that, sadly, have already happened in reality."
Q: Is there no concern that during such a surprise drill, a real firefight could break out?
"The fighters understand it's a simulation, because we wear bright vests and there are announcements over the PA system stating it's a drill."
"If we have to fight, we'll fight"
In its early days, the Red Unit focused primarily on Hezbollah, which was then considered the biggest threat in the region, but after October 7, the Hamas threat from the south was no longer underestimated, and today each company specializes in its own zone. Every few months, the fighters refresh their study materials, so they don't lose touch with whom they are simulating.
Q: The question is whether, after so many hours immersed in Hezbollah and Hamas, they don't start to feel a certain identification with the enemy.
2nd Lt. A.: "We don't think about 'why am I doing this' as Hamas or as Hezbollah, or what the rationale behind them is. We focus only on the professional side. The focus is on their methods of fighting, not on their ideology."
2nd Lt. S.: "I will never understand their desire to kill us, but we're not truly in their position – we're only trying to get into their heads when it comes to combat. I can perhaps understand why they choose one method of fighting over another, but nothing beyond that. There is no connection between us. We disconnect from emotion and focus on the professional side – on how to be the best and most driven in order to challenge our fighters."
Q: Who do you prefer to simulate – Hezbollah or Hamas?
2nd Lt. S.: "Hezbollah. Their military is far more organized and capable than Hamas', but their individual fighters' skill is not the best, and we've seen that on the ground. With Hamas, the fighting is much more free-form."
2nd Lt. A.: "I prefer simulating Hamas, because of the free rein. Hamas doesn't really have fixed methods of fighting. They have a certain vision in which they go all in, more suicidal in approach, and that gives us the freedom to do what we want."
The Red Unit's fighters are required to improvise, be creative, and hold up under pressure. They must be physically capable because they sometimes need to cover long distances on foot and stay sharp during extended drills. They train extensively at firing ranges so that in training engagements, they aim at the right places and serve as the most credible possible adversary for the trained fighters. But they also know that right now they are not at a level of combat readiness that would allow them to be sent to the front – and that was never the intention when they enlisted.
"If we have to fight, we'll fight," 2nd Lt. S., the company commander, said. "If a woman meets the same standard expected of men, there is no reason she shouldn't be integrated into combat. But if the standard has to be lowered for her, I don't believe in that. Professionalism is above all. We protect civilians, and that is far more important than any particular form of empowerment."
2nd Lt. A.: "Women should be integrated into combat. I agree that professionally, the standard and the requirements should not be lowered, and it really depends on character and will, because not everyone is built for it. But if it came to it, of course, I would fight. I'm very driven, and it moves me to see women fighters. It makes me admire them."
Cpl. S.: "When I enlisted, I wanted a role that wasn't combat, and what I do today suits me very well. But I think there needs to be women fighters in the IDF, and whoever feels that is her calling in life should do everything to prepare herself."
A unit of female empowerment
Almost every unit in the IDF has passed through enemy simulators in recent years. There are commanders who call the company commander personally and arrange a quick drill with the girls. Special units have been there, all the infantry units, even logistical forces that refreshed their combat performance before entering dangerous areas at the front.
"My first drill was with the Kingfisher Unit [Shaldag, an IAF special forces unit], and so I'll always remember it," 2nd Lt. A. said. "It was an intense drill in a small urban training compound [a facility designed to simulate built-up areas] in the south, so the engagement happened at very close range. It was a good drill, and in the debrief, the fighters admitted they were really surprised, even though they had done reconnaissance beforehand and hadn't spotted us. I felt the meaning of the role then."
2nd Lt. S. is convinced that since the start of the war, they have seen an improvement in the IDF's capabilities, but after years of drill experience, she has a favorite brigade. "I'll say that the Golani Brigade is simply excellent," she stated. "I don't have anything beyond that, except that they have never disappointed – they always perform in drills. And despite everything they went through since the war broke out, they got back on their feet and continued to be professional."
The Red Unit may be young, but it has a unit pride and the beginning of a tradition. Men, perhaps unsurprisingly, are not missed in their service landscape.
"Not at all," 2nd Lt. S. wanted to make clear. "This is an extraordinary unit of female empowerment, and it also demonstrates the strength of women. If something physical needs to be done – like carrying equipment – they don't need any man to help them."
2nd Lt. S. is from Haifa, Cpl. S. is from Givat Shmuel, and 2nd Lt. A. is from Jerusalem. Even their families initially didn't know what to make of the mysterious role. "Everyone in my family said it suited me to a tee, and it matched my personality perfectly," 2nd Lt. S. said. "It's no coincidence I stayed. I'm connected to it, and the further I advance in rank, the more they can see how fulfilled I am. Those feelings I bring home with me."
That same unit pride overflows nonstop in 2nd Lt. A. as well. "My parents are very proud and tell all their friends about my role," she said with a smile. "When I talk about my service, the questions come immediately, because it's a role that sparks interest and is still classified. I can't go into detail with everyone about exactly what I do."
Q: Do you see yourself continuing here?
"I don't see myself leaving the army in the coming years. I am very Zionist, regardless of whatever role I hold. I love the army, I understand the meaning of service, and I'm passionate about it beyond words. I feel like I'm expressing who I truly am, and this unit is like a family. Every time I left for a course, I felt like part of my heart had gone quiet – and when I came back, my air came back too."
