After being sexually harassed by terrorists, female IDF reservists refuse to serve
In April 2024, Israeli State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman criticized the Israeli military for apparently ordering female officer course cadets to guard the Nukhba terrorists.
IDF reservists were forced to guard violent Nukhba terrorists at the Sde Teiman base and detention center in the days after October 7, 2023, despite repeated sexual harassment, according to a KAN News article published Monday.
“We served them food, handcuffed them, stayed with them for long hours, and during that time they masturbated in front of us, blew us kisses and tried to undress themselves. Their looks were degrading, harsh. It was unbearable,” a reservist told Carmela Menashe of KAN News.
“I didn’t join the Israeli army for this,” one of the soldiers told Menashe, refusing to return to his role, despite the risk of being declared AWOL (absent without leave). “Take me to the battlefield, to war – but not to stand face to face with terrorists, murderers and rapists. »
“This place [Sde Teiman] had a deep impact on me,” she said. “I want to serve, I want to contribute – but not here. Not under these conditions.
Women also had to keep the terrorists in uncomfortably intimate situations, without buffers or protection.
Terrorists from Hamas’ Nukhba Battalion captured in the October 7 massacre seen in a cell at a prison in central Israel, where high-risk Hamas and Hezbollah prisoners captured in the recent war are held, March 4, 2025. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBEG/FLASH90)
“We had to keep them… even when they were showering, during handcuff exchanges – difficult, disturbing and humiliating situations for the women. There was no proper separation or protection for us,” they told KAN. “We would leave and they would come back to us at night, in nightmares. We would cry to each other. We just wanted to get out of that role.”
The reservists added that they were not allowed to speak to any IDF mental health professionals and were systematically ignored by their superiors when they tried to draw attention to the problem.
Leaving Sde Teiman did not solve the problem of ongoing traumatic reactions, they said. One of their colleagues, who also guarded the Sde Teiman terrorists, was hospitalized and is receiving long-term mental health care, KAN reported.
Sexual violence in Israeli prisons: 38% of female guards attacked by security prisoners
This issue has already been brought to the attention of the military. In April 2024, Israeli State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman criticized the Israeli military for apparently ordering female officer course cadets to guard the Nukhba terrorists.
Englman said the orders stood in stark contrast to the 2022 Protection of Female Soldiers report, which noted that 38% of female prison guards report being sexually assaulted by Palestinian security prisoners.
“If we add recent evidence that the hostages were victims of sexual harassment, the painting is on the wall,” Engelman added.
