Military service routes The military service is held in three different tracks: •
Regular service (שירות חובה): mandatory military service which is held according to the Israeli security service law. •
Permanent service (שירות קבע): military service which is held as part of a contractual agreement between the IDF and the permanent position-holder. •
Reserve service (שירות מילואים): a military service in which citizens are called for active duty of at most a month every year (in accordance with the Reserve Service Law), for training and ongoing military activities and especially to increase the military forces in case of a war. Sometimes the IDF would also hold pre-military courses (קורס קדם צבאי or קד"צ) for soon-to-be regular service soldiers.
Special service routes •
Shoher (שוחר), a person enrolled in pre-military studies (high school, technical college up to engineering degree, some of the קד"ץ courses) – after completing the twelfth study year will do a two-month boot-camp and, if allowed, enter a program of education to qualify as a
practical engineer, with at least two weeks of training following each study year. Successful candidates will continue for an engineering
bachelor degree. •
Civilian working for the IDF (), a civilian working for the military. The
Israeli Manpower Directorate () at the
Israeli General Staff is the body which coordinates and assembles activities related to the control over human resources and its placement.
Regular service soldiers on their regular service National military service is mandatory for all
Israeli citizens over the age of 18, although
Arab (but not
Druze) citizens are exempted if they so please, and other exceptions may be made on religious, physical or psychological grounds (see
Profile 21). The
Tal law exempted ultra-Orthodox Jews from service. In June 2024,
Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Haredi Jews were eligible for compulsory service, ending nearly eight decades of exemption. The army began drafting Haredi men the following month. Until the draft of July 2015, men served three years in the IDF. Men drafted since July 2015 serve two years and eight months (32 months), with some roles requiring an additional four months of Permanent service. Women serve two years. The IDF women who volunteer for several combat positions often serve for three years, due to the longer period of training. Women in other positions, such as programmers, who also require lengthy training time, may also serve three years. Many
Religious Zionist men (and many
Modern Orthodox who make
Aliyah) elect to do
Hesder, a five-year program envisioned by Rabbi
Yehuda Amital which combines
Torah learning and
military service. Some distinguished soldiers are selected to be trained to eventually become members of
special forces units. Every brigade in the IDF has its special force branch. Career soldiers are paid on average
NIS 23,000 a month. Conscripts are paid according to four tiers based on their positions. Frontline soldiers receive NIS 3,048 a month, other combat soldiers receive NIS 2,463, combat support soldiers receive NIS 1,793, and administrative soldiers receive NIS 1,235. In 1998–2000, only about 9% of those who
refused to serve in the Israeli military were granted an exemption. In early 2026 it was made public that the IDF was considering expanding recruitment outreach to Jewish communities abroad in response to a manpower shortfall estimated at 10,000–12,000 soldiers. Reports state that the initiative would target young diaspora Jews, encouraging them to immigrate to Israel and enlist, with a focus on communities in North America and Europe. The move is described as a voluntary measure aimed at easing personnel shortages rather than altering Israel's core conscription system.
Permanent service Permanent service is designed for soldiers who choose to continue serving in the army after their regular service, for a short or long period, and in many cases making the military their career. Permanent service is based on a contractual agreement between the IDF and the permanent position holder.
Reserve service After personnel complete their regular service, they are either granted permanent exemption from military service or assigned a position in the reserve forces. No distinction is made between the assignment of men and women to reserve service. The IDF may call up reservists for: • reserve service of up to one month every three years, until the age of 40 (enlisted) or 45 (officers). Reservists may volunteer after this age, with the approval of the Manpower Directorate. • immediate active duty in wartime. All Israelis who served in the IDF and are under the age of 40, unless otherwise exempt, are eligible for reserve duty. Only those who completed at least 20 days of reserve duty within the past three years are considered active reservists.
Non-IDF service Other than the civil, i.e. non-military "National Service" (
Sherut Leumi), IDF conscripts may serve in bodies other than the IDF in several ways. The combat option is
Israel Border Police (
Magav – the exact translation from Hebrew means "border guard") service, part of the
Israel Police. Some soldiers complete their IDF combat training and later undergo additional
counter terror and Border Police training. These are assigned to Border Police units. The Border Police units fight side by side with the regular IDF combat units though to a lower capacity. They are also responsible for security in heavy urban areas such as
Jerusalem and security and crime fighting in rural areas. Non-combat services include the (
Shaham, שח"מ) program, where youth serve in the
Israeli Police,
Israel Prison Service, or other wings of the
Israeli Security Forces instead of the regular army service.
Women ; two common assault rifles of the IDF. Israel is one of only a few nations that conscript women and deploy them in combat roles, although in practice, women can avoid conscription through a religious exemption and over a third of Israeli women do so. As of 2010, 88% of all roles in the IDF are open to female candidates, and women could be found in 69% of all IDF positions. According to the IDF, 535 female Israeli soldiers were killed during service in the period 1962–2016, and dozens before then. The IDF says that fewer than 4 percent of women are in combat positions. Rather, they are concentrated in "combat-support" positions which command a lower compensation and status than combat positions. Civilian pilot and aeronautical engineer Alice Miller successfully petitioned the High Court of Justice to take the Israeli Air Force pilot training exams, after being rejected on grounds of gender. Though president
Ezer Weizman, a former IAF commander, told Miller that she would be better off staying home and darning socks, the court eventually ruled in 1996 that the IAF could not exclude qualified women from pilot training. Even though Miller would not pass the exams, the ruling was a watershed, opening doors for women in new IDF roles. Female legislators took advantage of the momentum to draft a bill allowing women to volunteer for any position if they could qualify. In 2000, the Equality Amendment to the Military Service law stated that the right of women to serve in any role in the IDF is equal to the right of men. Women have served in the military since before the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. Women started to enter combat support and light combat roles in a few areas, including the Artillery Corps, infantry units and armoured divisions. A few platoons named Karakal were formed for men and women to serve together in light infantry. By 2000, Karakal became a
full-fledged battalion, with a second mixed-gender battalion, Lions of the Jordan (אריות הירדן, Arayot Ha-Yarden) formed in 2015. Many women also joined the
Border Police. In 2013, the IDF announced they would, for the first time, allow a transgender woman to serve in the army as a female soldier. Elana Sztokman notes it would be "difficult to claim that women are equals in the IDF". "And tellingly, there is only one female general in the entire IDF," she adds. In January 2015, three women IDF singers performed in one of the IDF's units. The performance was first disrupted by fifteen religious soldiers, who left in protest and then the Master Sergeant forced the women to end the performance because it was disturbing the religious soldiers. An IDF spokesperson announced an investigation of the incident: "We are aware of the incident and already begun examining it. The exclusion of women is not consistent with the values of the IDF." Defense Minister
Moshe Ya'alon has also arranged for women to be excluded from recruitment centres catering to religious males. As the IDF recruits more religious soldiers, the rights of male religious soldiers and women in the IDF come into conflict. Brig. Gen. Zeev Lehrer, who served on the chief of staff's panel of the integration of women, noted "There is a clear process of 'religionization' in the army, and the story of the women is a central piece of it. There are very strong pressures at work to halt the process of integrating women into the army, and they are coming from the direction of religion."
Sex segregation is allowed in the IDF, which reached what it considers a "new milestone" in 2006, creating the first company of soldiers segregated in an all-female unit, the Nachshol (Hebrew for "giant wave") Reconnaissance Company. "We are the only unit in the world made up entirely of female combat soldiers," said Nachshol Company Commander Cpt. Dana Ben-Ezra. "Our effectiveness and the dividends we earn are the factors by which we are measured, not our gender." With the rise of social media platforms such as
TikTok and
Twitter, some critics claim that women in the IDF are frequently used as tools of propaganda, with official military accounts frequently posting attractive young women to create a sympathetic social media presence.
Minorities in the IDF Non-Jewish minorities tended to serve in one of several special units: the
Sword Battalion, also known as Unit 300 or the Minorities Unit, until it was disbanded in 2015; the Druze Reconnaissance Unit; and the Trackers Unit, composed mostly of
Negev Bedouins. In 1982, the IDF general staff decided to integrate the armed forces by opening up other units to minorities, while placing some Jewish conscripts in the Minorities Unit. Until 1988, the Intelligence Corps and the Air Force remained closed to minorities.
Druze and Circassians commander of the IDF Herev battalion Although Israel has a majority of Jewish soldiers, all citizens including large numbers of
Druze and
Circassian men are subject to mandatory conscription. Originally, they served in the framework of a special unit called "The Minorities' Unit", which operated until 2015 in the form of the independent Herev Gdud
("Sword") battalion. However, since the 1980s Druze soldiers have increasingly protested this practice, which they considered a means of segregating them and denying them access to elite units (like
sayeret units). The army has increasingly admitted Druze soldiers to regular combat units and promoted them to higher ranks from which they had been previously excluded. In 2015, Rav Aluf
Gadi Eizenkot ordered the unit's closure to assimilate the Druze soldiers no differently than Jewish soldiers, as part of an ongoing reorganization of the army. Several Druze officers reached ranks as high as Major General, and many received commendations for distinguished service. In proportion to their numbers, the Druze people achieve much higher—documented—levels in the Israeli army than other soldiers. Nevertheless, some Druze still charge that discrimination continues, such as exclusion from the
Air Force, although the official low-security classification for Druze has been abolished for some time. The first Druze aircraft navigator completed his training course in 2005. Like all Air Force pilots, his identity is not disclosed. During the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, many Druze who had initially sided with the Arabs deserted their ranks to either return to their villages or side with Israel in various capacities. Since the late 1970s, the Druze Initiative Committee, centred at the village of
Beit Jan and linked to
Maki, has campaigned to abolish Druze conscription. Military service is a tradition among some of the Druze population, with most opposition in Druze communities of the
Golan Heights. 83 per cent of Druze boys serve in the army, according to the IDF's statistics. According to the Israeli army in 2010, 369 Druze soldiers had been killed in combat operations since 1948.
Bedouins and Israeli Arabs in 1978 By law, all Israeli citizens are subject to conscription. The Defense Minister has complete discretion to grant exemption to individual citizens or classes of citizens. A long-standing policy dating to Israel's early years extends an exemption to all other Israeli minorities (most notably
Israeli Arabs). However, there is a long-standing government policy of encouraging
Bedouins to volunteer and of offering them various inducements, and in some impoverished Bedouin communities a military career seems one of the few means of (relative) social mobility available. Also, Muslims and Christians are accepted as volunteers, even if older than 18. From among non-Bedouin Arab citizens, the number of volunteers for military service—some
Christian Arabs and even a few Muslim Arabs—is minute, and the government makes no special effort to increase it. Six Israeli Arabs have received orders of distinction as a result of their military service; of them the most famous is a Bedouin officer, Lieutenant Colonel Abd el-Majid Hidr (also known as
Amos Yarkoni), who received the Order of Distinction. Vahid el Huzil was the first Bedouin to be a battalion commander. Until the second term of
Yitzhak Rabin as Prime Minister (1992–1995), social benefits given to families in which at least one member (including a grandfather, uncle, or cousin) had served at some time in the armed forces were significantly higher than to "non-military" families, which was considered a means of blatant discrimination between Jews and Arabs. Rabin led the abolition of the measure, in the teeth of strong opposition from the Right. At present, the only official advantage of military service is the attaining of security clearance and serving in some types of government positions (in most cases, security-related), as well as some indirect benefits. Rather than perform army service, Israeli Arab youths have the option to volunteer to
national service and receive benefits similar to those received by discharged soldiers. The volunteers are generally allocated to Arab populations, where they assist with social and community matters. , 1,473 Arabs were volunteering for national service. According to sources in the national service administration, Arab leaders are counselling youths to refrain from performing services to the state. According to a National Service official, "For years the Arab leadership has demanded, justifiably, benefits for Arab youths similar to those received by discharged soldiers. Now, when this opportunity is available, it is precisely these leaders who reject the state's call to come and do the service, and receive these benefits." Although Arabs are not obliged to serve in the IDF, any Arab can volunteer. In 2008, a Muslim Arab woman was serving as a medic with unit 669. Cpl.
Elinor Joseph from
Haifa became the first female Arab combat soldier for IDF. Other Arab-Muslim officers who have served in the IDF are
Second Lieutenant Hisham Abu Varia and
Major Ala Wahib, the highest ranking Muslim officer in the IDF in 2013. In October 2012, the IDF promoted Mona Abdo to become the first female Christian Arab to the rank of combat commander. Abdo had voluntarily enlisted in the IDF, which her family had encouraged, and transferred from the
Ordnance Corps to the
Caracal Battalion, a mixed-gender unit with both Jewish and Arab soldiers. In 2014, an increase in Israeli Christian Arabs joining the army was reported. soldier Muslim Arabs have also been drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in increasing numbers in recent years. In 2020, 606 Muslim Arabs were drafted, compared to 489 in 2019 and 436 in 2018. More than half of those who have drafted have gone into combat roles.
Ethiopian Jews The IDF carried out extended missions in
Ethiopia and neighbouring states, whose purpose was to protect
Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) and to help their immigration to Israel. The IDF adopted policies and special activities for the absorption and integration of Ethiopian immigrant soldiers, reported to have much improved the achievements and integration of those soldiers in the army, and Israeli society in general. Statistical research showed that the Ethiopian soldiers are esteemed as excellent soldiers and many aspire to be recruited to combat units.
Haredim Under a special arrangement based on the principle of
Torato Umanuto,
Haredi men could choose to defer service while enrolled in
yeshivot and many avoided conscription altogether. This has given rise
to tensions between the Israeli religious and secular communities. In 2024, the
Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Haredi men were eligible for compulsory service and the army began drafting them. In 2024, the
Hasmonean Brigade, a Haredi infantry unit, was created to accommodate Haredi soldiers. In January 2025, the unit received its first 50 soldiers. Since the beginning of the
Israel-Hamas War, 600 Haredim have enlisted through the
Shlav Bet program, an IDF recruitment track intended for Haredim over the age of 26 to complete military service.
LGBT people Since the early 1990s, sexual identity has presented no formal barrier in terms of soldiers' military specialization or eligibility for promotion. Until the 1980s, the IDF tended to discharge soldiers who were openly gay. In 1983, the IDF permitted homosexuals to serve but banned them from intelligence and top-secret positions. A decade later, professor Uzi Even, The chief of staff's policy states that it is strictly forbidden to harm or hurt anyone's dignity or feeling based on their gender or sexual orientation in any way, including signs, slogans, pictures, poems, lectures, any means of guidance, propaganda, publishing, voicing, and utterance. Moreover, gays in the IDF have additional rights, such as the right to take a shower alone if they want to. According to a
University of California, Santa Barbara study, a brigadier general stated that Israelis show a "great tolerance" for gay soldiers. Consul
David Saranga at the Israeli Consulate in New York, who was interviewed by the
St. Petersburg Times, said, "It's a non-issue. You can be a very good officer, a creative one, a brave one, and be gay at the same time."
Deaf and hard-of-hearing people Israel is the only country in the world that requires deaf and hard-of-hearing people to serve in the military. Sign language interpreters are provided during training, and many of them serve in non-combat capacities such as mapping and office work. The major language spoken by the deaf and hard-of-hearing in Israel is
Israeli Sign Language (also called Shassi)–a language related to
German Sign Language but not Hebrew or any other local language–though Israel and Palestine are home to numerous sign languages spoken by various populations like Bedouins'
Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language.
Vegans According to a
Care2 report, vegans in the IDF may refuse vaccination if they oppose animal testing. They are given artificial leather boots and a black fleece beret. Until 2014, vegan soldiers in the IDF received special allowances to buy their own food, when this policy was replaced with vegan food being provided in all bases, as well as vegan combat rations being offered to vegan combat soldiers.
Overseas volunteers Non-immigrating foreign volunteers typically serve with the IDF in one of five ways: • The
Mahal program targets young non-Israeli Jews or Israeli citizens who grew up abroad (men younger than 24 and women younger than 21). The program consists typically of 18 months of IDF service, including a lengthy training for those in combat units or (for 18 months) one month of non-combat training and an additional two months of learning
Hebrew after enlisting, if necessary. There are two additional subcategories of Mahal, both geared solely for religious men: Mahal
Nahal Haredi (18 months), and Mahal
Hesder, which combines yeshiva study of 5 months with IDF service of 16 months, for a total of 21 months. Similar IDF programs exist for Israeli overseas residents. To be accepted as a Mahal Volunteer, one must be of Jewish descent (at least one Jewish grandparent). •
Sar-El, an organization subordinate to the Israeli
Logistics Corps, provides a volunteer program for non-Israeli citizens who are 17 years or older (or 15 if accompanied by a parent). The program is also aimed at Israeli citizens, aged 30 years or older, living abroad who did not serve in the Israeli Army and who now wish to finalize their status with the military. The program usually consists of three weeks of volunteer service on different rear army bases, doing non-combative work. •
Garin Tzabar offers a program mainly for Israelis who emigrated with their parents to the United States at a young age. Although a basic knowledge of the Hebrew language is not mandatory, it is helpful. Of all the programs listed, only Garin Tzabar requires full-length service in the IDF. The program is set up in stages: first, the participants go through five seminars in their country of origin, then have an absorption period in Israel at a
kibbutz. Each delegation is adopted by a kibbutz in Israel and has living quarters designated for it. The delegation shares responsibilities in the kibbutz when on military leave. Participants start the program three months before being enlisted in the army at the beginning of August. •
Marva is short-term basic training for two months. • Lev LaChayal is a program based at
Yeshivat Lev Hatorah which takes a holistic approach to preparation for service. Being as ready as possible to integrate into Israeli culture, handling the physical challenges of the military, and maintaining religious values require a multi-pronged approach. The beit midrash learning, classes, physical training, and even recreational activities are designed to allow for maximum readiness. ==Doctrine==