Soldiers from the Givati Brigade's Rotem Battalion were prosecuted on Sunday by court-martial rather than criminally after refusing to board an armored personnel carrier (APC) with a female paramedic on Wednesday, an IDF source indirectly told The Jerusalem Post.
A second IDF source indirectly confirmed the disciplinary process to the Post, adding that the military is not pleased that the information was published before the verdicts were handed down.
The IDF sources' comments to the Post come after a journalist from N12 News reported that four soldiers who refused to enter the APC were sentenced to 10 days each in military prison, three soldiers who aided them were sentenced to five days each, and others are still to be court-martialled.
The incident on Wednesday occured following an overnight operational drill, during which the Rotem Battalion force was required to use an APC, with the IDF saying at the time that "soldiers who maintain a religious way of life are entitled to carry out operational activity in a gender-segregated framework, except in exceptional cases."
"In the incident described, the force refused to carry out the operational activity, and as a result, the activity was canceled," the IDF said, noting that "command measures" would be taken "in accordance with the findings."
Hesder yeshivas refuse to enlist students amid pilot program for female Armored Corps soldiers
In June, hesder yeshivas said they would stop sending their students for IDF enlistment after the military announced a pilot program for female soldiers in the Armored Corps, with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Eyal Zamir addressing the issue at an IDF Employees Organization conference.
"The IDF is the people's army, and therefore there is paramount importance in integrating all sectors of the population into its ranks, especially in the combat array," he said. "This complex integration of women in the military will always be carried out in a manner that allows one sector of the public to serve alongside another, and not at its expense."
The military emphasized that the pilot program was not a full commitment to integration, but rather a preliminary examination of the possibility.
Yonah Jeremy Bob and Amir Bohbot contributed to this report.