The Desert Cats
Caracal — The First Mixed IDF Battalion
I had a pleasant chat with a new running team member. The weather was nice and cool as we had an easy run together and enjoyed the small talk about our mutual passion: Running.
At some point, my new friend mentioned her eldest daughter and told me she was an officer in the Caracal Battalion. That triggered me since that’s one of my favorite IDF battalions for various reasons and should be yours too.
Caracal
Named after a desert cat that is common all around the Middle East and Africa, the Caracal Battalion was created as a platoon of that name in 2000 to offer more opportunities for women to serve in combat roles. It was clear from the start that the demand was bigger than the offering. Similar platoons were created almost immediately and eventually organized as a full battalion 33 in 2004. The number 33 was chosen to honor the 33 Palmach women who fell during the War of Independence.
The battalion is part of Paran Brigade which has other mixed battalions, operating mainly along the Sinai border, carrying out several missions:
Border security and counter-terrorism along the border.
Prevention of weapons and drug smuggling.
Prevention of human trafficking.
Over the years the battalion had to fight to prove itself a capable fighting unit not only on the battlefield but in the public opinion arena as well against entrenched skepticism of women’s role on the battlefield. Skepticism has been present in the military circles and public opinion.
Before its establishment, it was unclear what could be expected of a mixed unit. What are the boundaries of allowed socializing in such a unit, and would there be enough motivated women to take on the challenge? I clearly remember these debates from my service in the 2000s.
The battalion was able to prove itself as light infantry, multiple times preventing drugs and arms smuggling, ISIS insurgency, and engaging terrorists that crossed the Sinai border.
In one of the incidents in 2014, a platoon commander, Orr Ben Yehuda got a commendation from the commander of the southern command for preventing a larger terror attack at the Sinai border, killing 6 Al Qaida terrorists. Orr and another soldier were wounded in the battle and continued fighting. She is the current battalion commander.
Regardless of the success of the unit, in 2018 a group of conservative rabbis published an open letter condemning the mixed battalion and women serving in combat roles. It didn’t have the effect they desired. The IDF enjoyed that instead of placing reserve units on the borders, an expensive endeavor with soldiers’ morale low, they switched to using highly motivated soldiers, 70% of whom are women.
Let The Tank Role
The demand for ever more opportunities for women in the combat units peaked during the late 2010s and reached the last bastion of masculinity — the armored corps. This is where even I, a long-time supporter of women in combat roles, was unsure about the ability of a woman to service a tank. The physique required to maintain a combat-capable tank is quite high. Even a 200-pound muscular man would find it very challenging, not to mention being covered in tank grease during your entire military service. Some of the work is backbreaking, literally. Imagine changing tank tracks weighing ~2 tons in the blistering heat of the Negev desert or executing pre-combat maintenance. Backbreaking!
The IDF held two limited experiments with several women tank crews to understand what works, what should be the training program, and what can be expected and declared in 2022 that the experiments were successful. One of the challenges was to find the right balance between keeping the health of the tank crews, while not compromising the combat training and military capabilities.
Following this experiment, several women-only tank crews were created and several were integrated into the Caracal battalion as additional tank platoon.
Despite the progress made and the operational success on Oct. 7, the role of women tank crews has not yet been fully decided. The public and inner army debates continue.
Oct 7, 2023, And The Desert Cats
On Oct 7, two tank crews rolled almost a hundred kilometers along the Sinai border road when news of the Hamas attack reached the battalion. Reaching the southern part of the Gaza envelope area, they killed dozens of rampaging terrorists on their way. Fighting multiple terrorists armed with light arms and anti-tank RPG launchers they proved, once again, there is no alternative to professional and disciplined tank crews on the battlefield. At one point the two tanks split: one tank remained to secure the breached border, fighting dozens of terrorists for long hours, killing many dozens. Yes, four 19-year-old women and a tank killed many dozens of terrorists!
The other tank crew hurried to liberate Kibbutz Holit which was under attack by hoards of terrorists. It smashed the gates of Kibbutz Sufa and helped liberate the Kibutz, fighting alongside other infantry units.
At the same time, a unit commanded by the battalion’s commander, Lt. Col. Orr Ben Yehuda, came to the rescue of Sufa base, which only had 11 soldiers fielding it, and was under attack by over a hundred terrorists. Together they managed to hold off the attack in one part of the base while treating the wounded until reinforcements arrived to clear the remaining base. Throughout the hours of battle, she inspired her troops with confidence that they would succeed in halting the attack.
During the battle, Orr was informed that her deputy, Maj. Avi Hobelashvili was killed at the Kibbutz Be’eri battle.
In total, the estimate is that the battalion killed over a hundred invading terrorists on Oct 7.
