Gershon also commanded the Judea and Samaria Division during the Second Intifada and oversaw the IDF's Operation Defensive Shield.

Yitzhak Gershon enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in February 1977 and volunteered for the Shaked Reconnaissance Unit.

While attending the Squad Commanders Course for reconnaissance units at the IDF NCO School, he participated as a fighter in Operation Litani.

In the 1982 Lebanon War, he commanded Company May 1981 in the 890th Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade and led it from the amphibious landing at the mouth of the Awali River to Beirut.

"[7] In another encounter in the village, the paratroopers, led by Gershon, stormed a Hezbollah position and threw a grenade inside.

At this point, the battalion commander decided to break the lever of a phosphorus grenade to eliminate the delay time, despite the safety prohibition, and threw it into the pit.

[10] In July 1994, during his service in the South Lebanon Security Zone, two of his soldiers were killed and four others wounded during an operational accident when an armored personnel carrier struck a power line at the Taybeh outpost.

Gershon led the brigade in the South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000), including in Operation "Reducing Range," during which the commander of the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit, Eitan Belhassan, was killed.

[11] Gershon commanded the division during Operation Defensive Shield and led the capture of the cities of Nablus and Ramallah, and the siege of the Muqata.

He also pushed for the establishment of the National Emergency Management Authority (RAHEL), which replaced the outdated Civil Defense system.

Gershon holds a Master's degree in Political Science with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Haifa.