Israeli Air Force

Overview

The Israeli Air Force is the air arm of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Established during Israel’s struggle for independence in 1948, it defends Israeli airspace, supports ground and naval forces, gathers intelligence and conducts strikes within and beyond the country’s borders. Its missions extend from intercepting aircraft, rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles to sustained campaigns against military forces and terrorist organizations. Control of the skies has long been central to Israeli military planning: it protects forces in combat and enables action against threats at distances far beyond Israel’s borders.

The service’s history includes the opening air strikes of the Six-Day War, losses to surface-to-air missiles in the Yom Kippur War, the destruction of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, and later operations against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Iranian regime. Fighter aircraft remain prominent, including F-15s, F-16s and F-35s. The force also employs helicopters, transports, refueling aircraft, unmanned aircraft and dedicated air-defense units. Its operations increasingly combine surveillance, precision strikes, protection of Israeli civilians and immediate support for troops on the ground.

Founding and ideology

The air force emerged from the Air Service of the Haganah as Israel fought the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Israel’s founding ordinance established the IDF as a military force comprising land forces, a navy and an air force. British restrictions had left the Jewish community with few trained military aviators: Britain did not admit Jews living under its Mandate to Royal Air Force aircrew training until 1943, and fewer than 25 had qualified as Royal Air Force pilots by the end of World War II. Overseas volunteers known as Machal therefore supplied much of the new air force’s early aircrew and technical staff. They worked alongside Israelis to turn a small collection of civilian aircraft, imported fighters and improvised equipment into a combat service.

Volunteer mechanic Jack Freedman helped make most of 20 scrap-condition Auster observation aircraft flyable for the Air Service. He also organized the team that assembled Israel’s first Spitfire from parts left behind by departing Royal Air Force squadrons. Operation Balak carried urgently needed equipment and Israel’s first fighter aircraft from Czechoslovakia by air. On May 29, 1948, Israeli and Machal pilots flying Czech-built fighters attacked an Egyptian column advancing toward Tel Aviv and helped stop it. In the opening crisis, aircraft were the only IDF force available to strike the advancing armies at that point. From August through December, Norseman transports maintained a vital air link between isolated Sdom and the rest of Israel. These missions established the force’s early combination of combat, supply and support for isolated communities.

As a state military service, the air force has no separate political ideology. Its institutional purpose is the defense of Israel and the execution of missions assigned through the IDF and Israel’s elected government. After the independence war, the departure of many overseas volunteers led the service to organize around Israeli personnel and permanent bases. Hatzerim, outside Beersheba, was the first air base built by Israel. Successive generations of aircraft and personnel expanded the force from an improvised wartime arm into a permanent military institution.

History

The air force’s early wars made air superiority a central element of Israeli strategy. During the 1956 Sinai campaign it transported paratroopers, attacked communications, supported ground forces and carried out rescues. In April 1967, Israeli aircraft shot down six Soviet-supplied Syrian MiG fighters during a retaliatory strike. The greater test followed on June 5, 1967. At 7:14 a.m., the air force launched Operation Moked, also called Operation Focus, against Egyptian airfields as Egyptian pilots were eating breakfast. Only 12 Israeli fighters remained to defend Israeli airspace while the rest of the force joined the opening attack. The destruction of large numbers of Egyptian aircraft, followed by strikes against other opposing air forces, gave Israel a decisive advantage in the Six-Day War. The operation showed how detailed planning, surprise and control of the air could shape the course of a ground war.

The War of Attrition and the 1973 Yom Kippur War exposed another side of that strategy. Egyptian surface-to-air missiles inflicted significant damage on Israeli aircraft during the Yom Kippur War, restricting their ability to support ground troops. Israel also used aircraft as flying artillery because it lacked enough conventional guns along the Suez Canal. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan later acknowledged that expectations placed on the air force during the war’s opening stage had been unrealistic. The experience reinforced the importance of suppressing air defenses, coordinating air and ground operations, and protecting aircraft before seeking freedom to operate over an enemy’s territory.

On June 7, 1981, eight Israeli pilots carried out Operation Opera, a long-range raid that destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered the strike. Amos Yadlin was among the pilots and was the first to drop bombs on the reactor. The mission required a flight across hostile airspace with little margin for delay: interception by aircraft from Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Iraq would have left the Israeli F-16s with little endurance for prolonged combat or evasive maneuvers. Operation Opera became a defining example of the air force’s ability to plan and execute a distant strike against a strategic target.

Later campaigns broadened the force’s missions beyond combat with conventional armies. It developed dedicated unmanned-aircraft and air-defense branches, improved precision support for ground troops and adapted to missile threats. During the 2006 Lebanon War, air operations formed part of Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah. Israeli aircraft struck mobile guided-missile crews and terrorist facilities in Lebanon. The air force also took part in operations against Hamas leaders. A September 6, 2003, strike on a meeting in Gaza wounded Ahmed Yassin’s hand but did not kill him; Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif also escaped the attack.

The service has also used ceremonial flights to express its connection to Jewish history. On September 4, 2003, three Israeli F-15 fighters flew over Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, the son of Holocaust survivors, led the formation. The flight affirmed the strength of the Jewish people after the Holocaust and the air force’s role in defending Israel.

Structure and leadership

The Israeli Air Force operates under the IDF’s military command. Its squadrons and specialized branches carry out fighter, transport, helicopter, unmanned-aircraft, intelligence and air-defense missions. Its aircraft have included F-35 and F-16 fighters, Hermes 450 Zik armed unmanned aircraft and Apache helicopters. The F-35 adds advanced sensing and strike capabilities, while unmanned aircraft permit extended surveillance and attacks in support of ground forces. Air-defense personnel protect Israeli territory against aircraft, missiles and drones. Planning and force development link these different capabilities to operational needs across Israel’s fronts.

Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar commanded the air force during its expanded operations after the October 7 attacks and described restoring freedom of flight over Lebanon. The force’s personnel include remotely piloted aircraft operators as well as aircrew and ground specialists. Harel Koriat served as an operator in Squadron 166, flew hundreds of operational hours after October 7, 2023, and fell in the line of duty on February 9, 2025, aged 20. In January 2018, a transport pilot identified as Major T. became Israel’s first woman appointed to command a flight squadron. Such roles reflect the range of work required to sustain continuous air operations.

Attacks and operations

After Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, the air force undertook extensive operations in the Gaza war and on other fronts. During the first four months, it struck 31,000 targets across multiple fronts, an average of roughly 228 per day. In Gaza, warplanes and unmanned aircraft carried out 7,000 strikes requested by forces facing immediate threats or urgent needs. Those figures include air-launched attacks and close support, but not artillery fire. Fighters, helicopters and remotely piloted aircraft were used against launch sites, armed units and other military targets. After a rocket attack on Beersheba on May 10, 2024, Israeli aircraft struck two Hamas launch sites in Rafah.

Air operations also accompanied the Israel–Hezbollah conflict. Hezbollah’s attacks near Israel’s northern border required surveillance and the ability to strike missile crews and facilities in Lebanon. Israeli air operations on the northern front included 1,100 strikes during the first four months after October 7. Aircraft attacked mobile guided-missile crews and other Hezbollah facilities, including medium-range launchers; Israeli estimates held that the force destroyed 90–95 percent of Hezbollah’s long-range rockets. The contest extended to freedom of flight. Hezbollah had built air-defense capabilities intended to restrict Israeli operations over Lebanon. By February 2024, the air force had destroyed extensive parts of that network and restored flights over Lebanon after a period without such flights beginning in 2018.

Hezbollah’s unmanned aircraft posed a related threat. On July 2, 2022, an Israeli fighter and naval Barak missiles intercepted three Hezbollah drones heading toward the Karish gas field. The incident illustrated that the air contest extended beyond land to Israel’s offshore infrastructure. Israeli aircraft also developed techniques for operating against Syrian air defenses equipped chiefly with Russian and Iranian weapons. During a February 2018 operation, Syrian antiaircraft fire downed an Israeli F-16; its pilot and navigator returned to Israel and ejected.

During the April 2024 Iranian strikes on Israel, the Iranian regime launched roughly 170 loitering munitions on April 14, most likely Shahed-136 drones. The Israeli Air Force and allied forces intercepted them before they reached Israel. The barrage demonstrated the importance of layered defenses and cooperation with other air forces against attacks launched from long distance. Later that month, Israel destroyed an S-300 radar inside Iran, demonstrating its ability to reach an element of the regime’s air-defense system.

The Houthis’ attacks on Israel led to long-range operations in Yemen. On July 20, 2024, a day after a Houthi drone struck Tel Aviv, killed a civilian and wounded others, the Israeli Air Force attacked Houthi-controlled sites around Hodeidah. It was Israel’s first military response to the Houthis’ persistent attacks on Israeli territory since the Gaza war began. Hodeidah Port was a target because the Houthis received advanced weapons from the Iranian regime there for attacks on Israel. Israeli aircraft struck the port again on July 21 and September 29 after Houthi attacks. On December 19, the air force struck Houthi military targets near Sanaa for the first time, as well as sites along Yemen’s coast, following repeated attacks. Fighter jets destroyed the last aircraft operated by the Houthis at Sanaa International Airport on May 28, 2025. Reports counted 12 Israeli strikes against three Hodeidah docks and other port infrastructure on September 16, 2025.

Following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Operation Bashan Arrow combined an IDF ground advance to Mount Hermon and the buffer zone with aerial and naval strikes on abandoned regime assets across Syria. The air campaign targeted military bases, air defenses, ballistic missiles, depots, aircraft, naval assets and facilities used to develop or produce chemical weapons. Israeli fighter jets struck military facilities in Homs. Israeli aircraft also used airspace over Hauran and the Daraa–Suwayda districts for operations against targets tied to the Iranian regime. On May 2, 2025, Israel struck near the presidential palace in Damascus to warn Syria’s rulers against threats to Druze communities. The Golan Heights, part of the State of Israel, lie within the historic region of Bashan; most of Bashan lies in Syria and is today occupied by Syria.

Long-range strikes require coordination, intelligence and air refueling. Israeli and American fighters conducted their first joint air-force training mission in April 2001, involving 14 Israeli F-15s, 10 Israeli F-16s and 11 American F-16s. Israel and the United States tested combined air defenses in Austere Challenge in November 2012. More than 50 Israeli and foreign fighters joined Israel’s Blue Flag exercise in November 2013. The two air forces signed a cooperation agreement in June 2015 establishing a joint annual work plan, and Israeli pilots trained against a replica Russian S-300 air-defense system during an international exercise in April 2016.

Israeli, American and British F-35 fighters flew in Exercise Tri-Lightning over the eastern Mediterranean on June 25, 2019, training in active and passive air defense against simulated adversary aircraft. Israeli F-35Is flew from Nevatim Air Base. The January 2023 Juniper Oak exercise involved more than 140 aircraft, 6,400 American troops and 1,500 Israeli troops. Juniper Oak 23.3 in July rehearsed long-range strikes, air refueling, air superiority and cyber defense. In March 2025, Israeli F-35I and F-15I fighters flew alongside a U.S. B-52 bomber during a regional mission to practice operational coordination. Such training addressed demands of distant operations, including the refueling needed for Israeli fighter missions against the Iranian regime’s nuclear facilities.

On June 13, 2025, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion against the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, ballistic missiles, air defenses and military leadership. Approximately 200 Israeli fighters participated in the opening attack, striking more than 100 targets. The strikes killed armed forces chief Mohammad Bagheri, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Hossein Salami, deputy commander Gholam Ali Rashid and IRGC aerospace chief Amir Ali Hajizadeh. Israeli aircraft struck detection radars and surface-to-air missile batteries to open routes for further attacks. By June 17, the IDF reported strikes on more than 70 Iranian air-defense missile batteries. Establishing freedom of flight over western Iran and toward Tehran enabled subsequent attacks on nuclear infrastructure, missile production and military command sites. Air superiority, rather than missile exchanges alone, shaped the campaign’s reach.

Designations and international status

The Israeli Air Force is a military branch of the sovereign State of Israel, not a separate armed organization. It operates within the IDF under Israeli state command. Its international military relationships include training and operational coordination with the United States and other partners. American, British and Israeli participation in Tri-Lightning, repeated U.S.–Israeli exercises, and allied interception of the Iranian drone barrage illustrate the force’s place in regional defense cooperation.

Current status

The air force continues to combine conventional air power with unmanned aircraft, missile and drone defense, intelligence and precision support for ground troops. Operations since October 7, 2023, have required sustained activity over Gaza and Lebanon, defense against attacks from Iran and Yemen, and long-range strikes against Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure. Its experience in 1967 and 1973 remains central to its operational approach: gain freedom of flight by dealing with hostile air defenses, then use that freedom to protect Israeli forces and act against threats.