Israeli Soldiers - Organization - Ranks, Uniforms and Insignia - Uniforms

Uniforms

The Israel Defense Forces has several types of uniforms:

• Service dress (madei aleph – Uniform "A") – the everyday uniform, worn by enlisted soldiers.
• Field dress (madei bet – Uniform "B") – worn into combat, training, work on base.
• Officers / Ceremonial dress (madei srad) – worn by officers, or during special events/ceremonies.
• Dress uniform and Mess dress – worn only abroad. There are several dress uniforms depending on the season and the branch.

The service uniform for all ground forces personnel is olive green; navy and air force uniforms are beige (tan). The uniforms consist of a shirt, trousers, sweater, jacket or blouse, and shoes or boots. The navy has an all white dress uniform. Green fatigues are the same for winter and summer and heavy winter gear is issued as needed. Women's dress parallels the men's but may substitute a skirt for the trousers.

Headgear included a service cap for dress and semi-dress and a field cap worn with fatigues. IDF personnel generally wear berets in lieu of the service cap. Berets are now worn on the left shoulder under the epaulett daily and on the head only for ceremonial purposes. There are many Beret colors issued to IDF Servicemen and Women. Paratroops are issued a maroon beret, Golani brown, Givati purple, Kfir Camouflage, Combat Engineers gray, IDF Naval and Air force personnel also have berets. Blue-grey for the IDF Air Corps and Black for the IDF Naval Forces. Other beret colors are: black for armored corps, Grey for mechanized infantry and turquoise artillery personnel; olive drab for infantry; grey for combat engineers; and purple for the Givati Brigade and brown for the Golani Brigade. For all other army personnel, except combat units, the beret for men was green and for women, black. Women in the navy wore a black beret with gold insignia. Males in the navy once wore a blue/black beret but replaced it with the US Navy's sailor hat.

Some corps or units have small variations in their uniforms – for instance, military policemen wear a white belt and police hat, Naval personnel have dress whites for parades, Paratroopers are issued a four pocket Tunic (shirt) meant to be worn untucked with a pistol belt cinched tight around the waist over the shirt. Similarly, while most IDF soldiers are issued black leather boots, some units issue reddish-brown leather boots for historical reasons — the paratroopers, combat medics, Nahal and Kfir brigades, as well as some SF units (Sayeret Matkal, Oketz, Duvdevan, Maglan, Counter-Terror School). Women were also formerly issued sandals, but this practice has ceased.