The Israeli Pilots Who Conducted Operation ‘Days of Repentance’

They have been training for such a difficult mission all of their IAF lives: to fly 2000 kilometers to Iran, to destroy the targets they’ve been assigned to hit, and to fly 2,000 kilometers back. They knew how important their job was to the security of the Jewish state and its people. More on these remarkable men and women (for there were female pilots too) can be found here: “Pilots who led strikes on Iran: ‘An honor to fly through the dark for Israel,'” Jerusalem Post, October 27, 2024:

“It was an honor to fly through the dark desert, knowing every moment in the air was a step toward a new dawn for Israel.”

These are the words of Lt. Col. “Y.,” commander of the 119 Squadron, breaking his silence on the harrowing details of Operation Days of Repentance, the mission that marked Israel’s largest strike on Iran in decades.

On the morning of October 26, pilots from 201 Squadron launched three waves of airstrikes targeting critical Iranian military sites. The operation targeted air-defense batteries, a UAV production facility, and missile manufacturing sites.

This intense series of strikes was a direct response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier in the month, which escalated tensions between the two nations. By dawn, all Israeli aircraft had safely returned, in what the IDF described as a highly successful mission.

For the pilots involved, the mission was not just a professional operation but a personal testament to their commitment to the defense of Israel….

Since October 8, 2023, Israeli pilots have been conducting airstrikes everywhere that Israel is in a shooting war: against Hamas in Gaza, against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, against the Houthis in distant Yemen. There has been no let-up. But until October 26, 2024, the IAF had launched only a single attack on Iran, carried out on an air defense radar site in Isfahan on April 19. Only a handful of planes took part in that attack. By contrast, more than 100 planes took part in Operation Days of Repentance.

The men and women of the Israeli Air Force have been conducting missions day and night since October 8, 2023, helping to hold at bay the Jewish state’s myriad enemies in what has become a seven-front war. Few other air forces, perhaps none, have as many superb and battle-hardened pilots as the IAF possesses. Those pilots, even more than the aeronautical advances of its air force, are what explain its astonishing success.