Maj. Ella Waweya, known in the Arab world as “Captain Ella,” has been appointed as the IDF’s spokesperson in Arabic.

She will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and will replace Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, who is retiring from the IDF after 20 years of service. She currently serves as Adraee’s deputy.

Waweya, one of the most senior female Arab officers in the IDF, grew up in the Arab-Israeli city of Qalansawe. At age 22, she decided to volunteer for national service, which she completed at the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.

Two years later, she enlisted in the IDF and served as a new-media NCO in the Arabic Communications Department of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. In 2018, she received the Outstanding Officer citation of the IDF Operations Directorate.

In an interview in July at the Security and Service Conference organized by Ynet, Yedioth Achronot, and the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), she said, “The media arena is a battlefield. It is a war that is no less difficult than any other front.

“When we look today at October 7, when Hamas terrorists entered the Gaza border communities and Israel, they came in with cameras, with the aim of shaping perceptions and creating a cycle of hatred. We present our truth. We expose what the other side is doing and show our truth, and we do so with courage. This is extremely important — and, as I said, it is no less important and no less a battle over public consciousness and over the truth.”

Asked about her half a million followers on TikTok, she said, “I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Each of these platforms has its own audience. On Twitter you find opinion leaders and journalists. On TikTok, the main arena is Yehuda and Shomron and Gaza. On Instagram, the audience is mixed—from the West, from Israel, and from Arab society in general, including Lebanese users. The target audience is the Arabic-speaking public across the Middle East.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)