IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Thursday that the military needs “every male and female combat soldier and every male and female commander,” following threats by rabbis to stop sending their students to serve in tank units because of a pilot program integrating women into the Armored Corps.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew jeers from some in the crowd at the IDF cadets graduation ceremony, as he pushed back against critics of his wartime leadership.

Speaking Thursday, Zamir said that “the challenge facing the IDF is to find a balance between accommodating diverse populations and preserving a shared and unified framework that enables it to carry out its missions effectively.”

He added: “We will strengthen cohesion through what unites rather than what divides us. This too is part of the IDF’s ability to achieve victory.”

Zamir met Tuesday with senior religious Zionist rabbis following a letter from many of them threatening to stop sending their students to serve in tank units due to a pilot program integrating women into the Armored Corps. Their concern is that the students, who observe religious strictures around modesty, would serve too closely with female recruits. The IDF chief has repeatedly pledged that men and women will not serve together inside the same tanks.

The IDF is also facing a manpower shortage amid the ongoing dispute over Haredi service in the military due to the blanket exemption from long given to yeshiva students, something which has became a major political flashpoint in recent months.

In his own speech at the ceremony on Tuesday, Netanyahu hailed Israel’s military achievements in its wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, drawing mixed reactions from the crowd.

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© The Times of Israel