The indictment was handed down at the IDF military court in Jaffa, which will hold the soldier in custody until July 25. As the case is part of an ongoing investigation, the names of the involved parties have not been released. However, the suspect is a corporal in a mixed gender foot battalion.
According to the prosecution's indictment, the two soldiers were out on a social night with other soldiers in Tel Aviv. They attended a club whereupon the suspect reportedly pressed the victim to the wall and kissed her against her will, but she separated and insisted that she wasn't interested in a relationship with him.
That night, the suspect entered the victim's room and kissed her again. This time, she told him to leave (as they were staying at her house in Tel Aviv along with several other soldiers), but then changed her mind, allowing him to return so long as he understood that it was "as friends and nothing more."
Several hours later, the victim awoke once more to find the suspect on top of her, trying to have sex with her. She struggled and pled for him to stop, but he held her down and raped her. After he got off of her, the victim kicked the suspect out of her house.
The suspect, who has also been charged with smoking marijuana that same night, was arrested on June 28. He has maintained that sexual relations between the two of them were consensual.
"Afterwards [the victim] invited me back to her house. We were in her room while her parents were in the next room. I never attacked her. We had sex after numerous hints made by her the same night," he told Ynet.
"I have never been mixed up with the law and I was considered a good soldier in the platoon and never caused problems," he added. "My world has collapsed and I sincerely hope that she will retract her complaint."
This is the second incident of rape allegations in IDF ranks in the last three months. In May, IDF Military Police arrested a male soldier on suspicion of raping a female soldier the month prior. The suspect admitted that he had sex with his accuser, but he claimed that it was consensual.
Caracal Battalion, Israel's first mixed-gender infantry unit, was founded in 2000 and was the first instance of the IDF allowing women to serve in full combat roles. In 2014, the IDF released a report claiming that 96 percent of female soldiers served in noncombat positions. Sixty-five percent of all Israeli women are serving or have served in the IDF, compared to 72 percent of men.
