For over a year, a dedicated group of young women in Israel’s military has been on high alert, observing movements along the border with Lebanon. This female-only unit, known as field observers, has played a critical role in identifying threats from Hezbollah, diligently tracking the group’s activities from their posts. These soldiers, aged between 18 and 20, are responsible for monitoring drone activity, mortar rounds, and rockets that have plagued northern Israel since last October. Yet, even as tensions escalated, they feel their warnings and contributions have been largely ignored.
“We are unprotected, which is a problem for us, but it is also dangerous for our work, which is very important,” an observer near the border with Lebanon told The Washington Post. “Our superiors only want to shut us up, to not come to them with complaints, so they’re ignoring us even more,” she added.
Despite the ongoing military campaign against Hezbollah, the observers assert that they continue to be sidelined. Many believe this is partly due to an ingrained culture of misogyny within the IDF.
“It is a male army, where the ‘girls’ are seen as hysterical, where the commanders regularly say, ‘If you continue to send these alarms, you will be put in jail,'” said Gili Yuval, a former field observer who served during the early 2000s when Israel withdrew its forces and dismantled its settlements in Gaza.
Since October 7, she has led a loosely organized network of current and former observers, supplying essentials like food and clothing to victims of the attack.
The IDF has declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding these claims.
Gili Shrvit, 20, an observer stationed at another location along the Gaza border in Kissufim, recounted that on the morning of October 7, she was at her workstation, trembling and in tears as she reported the unfolding devastation: Hundreds of Hamas gunmen had breached their fence, shot out their cameras, and invaded their base.
“We were calling our superiors, telling them we are about to die,” she recalled. “They said they have no one for us.”
They took cover under their workstations, with no weapons to defend themselves, Shrvit recalled. Their commanders, located 20 miles away, informed them that combat soldiers were trapped in ambushes and could not assist.