News that the United States and the United Kingdom have for years been tapping into the encrypted communications of Israel Air Force drones and fighter jets sent shock waves through Israel on Friday, with the story dominating the front pages of the country’s newspapers.
Thirty-six years after murdering the Haran family and an Israeli policeman in a vicious terror attack in Nahariya, senior Hezbollah leader Samir Kuntar was killed in an airstrike on Saturday night, which the Lebanese terror organization attributed to the Israel Air Force.
Israel has quietly tested ways of defeating an advanced air-defense system that Russia has deployed in the Middle East and that could limit Tel Aviv’s ability to strike in Syria or Iran, military and diplomatic sources said.
A General Staff officer said Wednesday that many developments in the region in recent months had taken the army by surprise, so the army was striving to adapt.
A senior defense ministry official has said that Russian jets occasionally cross into Israeli airspace as part of operations in Syria, but that close cooperation between Jerusalem and Moscow has prevented any potentially deadly misunderstandings.
The Israel Air Force does not need anyone’s permission, including Russia’s, on where and when to operate in the region, an IAF officer told reporters, discussing his country’s air coordination with Russia.
Israel Air Force Re’em planes (Boeing 707s) have broken the record for the longest flight in the Israel Defense Forces by flying 10,000 kilometers non-stop.
A week following a supposed Israeli strike on a weapons-envoy in Syria, media outlets associated with Syrian President Bashar Assad reported Wednesday night of another Israeli airstrike in Syria.
Dr. Yossi Shuv, a veteran pilot of 35 years, began his career as an Israel Air Force (IAF) fighter pilot and has taken part in Israel’s wars since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Today he serves as head of the Israel Air Lines Pilots Association (IALPA).
Sources in Syria reported on Monday that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck an advanced missile shipment headed for the Iran terror proxy Hezbollah, as it passed through the Qalamoun mountain region on the border with Lebanon.