For the second time in less than a week, a woman has been appointed to a senior position in the IDF, this time as deputy commander of the Military Intelligence Directorate’s elite Unit 8200.
Lt.-Col. G has been promoted to the position of deputy commander of Unit 8200’s Digital Division and will receive the rank of colonel in the coming weeks, the IDF said in a press release. She is the first woman to hold the position.
G, whose full name cannot be disclosed, has held a wide range of roles in the fields of cybersecurity, intelligence and operations. She is currently the head of Unit 8200’s cyber center.
“I have been privileged to serve in Unit 8200, whose mission is to maintain the security of the State of Israel,” G said, adding that “our responsibility in the Intelligence Division is broad, from the collection of intelligence information to its extraction.
“Along with members of Unit 8200 and members of the Intelligence Division, I will lead the revolution of information superiority and artificial intelligence in a way that will enable its rapid exploitation in favor of significant leaps in the IDF’s operational effectiveness – exposing and destroying the enemy.”
G is 39 and has four children. She enlisted in Unit 8200’s network intelligence track and was the head of its Judea and Samaria sector during the wave of terrorist attacks from 2015 to 2016.
Unit 8200 is one of the IDF’s most coveted units and is regarded as Israel’s equivalent of the US National Security Agency. It intercepts and collects digital communication and intelligence on Israel’s enemies.
Unit 8200 is on the frontline of Israel’s cyber wars, identifying possible threats and neutralizing them, the IDF said.
The Intelligence Division has emphasized providing equal opportunities to both men and women in the unit, and a number of women have been promoted to the rank of colonel over the past year, including the head of the Information Security Department and the head of Depth Arena. All of them are the first women to serve in their roles.
An estimated 90% of IDF positions are now open to women, but the military has faced criticism in recent years for failing to promote them to senior positions. Earlier this year, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi said he intends to increase the number of senior female officers by 50% within the next five years.
Last week, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Kohavi promoted Brig.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi to be the next military advocate-general and the second female major-general in the IDF’s history.
Tomer-Yerushalmi will replace Maj.-Gen. Sharon Afek, the first openly gay major-general in the IDF.