On the first night of Israel’s launch of airstrikes against Iran, mere minutes after dozens of Israeli fighter jets crossed the Iranian border, an F-15 pilot spotted a lone Iranian fighter plane taking off from a base in the west of the country. Within minutes, the enemy aircraft reversed course and landed.

“The pilot probably realized what was coming,” speculates Maj. N., a combat navigator in Squadron 133, who spotted the plane. “He certainly didn’t want anything to do with the event and ran to hide. For me, that moment, more than anything else, illustrates the air superiority we brought with us all the way to Iran,” he said in an interview with Ynet.

N. said that he and his fellow pilots were shocked by the lack of resistance from the Iranian pilots.

Meanwhile, Iranian media has been broadcasting all types of lies to their citizens, including claims that Israeli pilots were shot down or captured.

“It’s funny—of course that didn’t happen,” N. said. “Every pilot dreams of downing an enemy aircraft, and we were ready for that. But during the opening wave, when we entered Iranian airspace, we saw their pilots take off—and then flee. They flew inward, toward central Iran, literally running away from us and disappearing.”

N. said that since the beginning of his career in the Air Force, he has participated in exercises simulating an attack scenario in Iran: “For years we have been preparing, but I didn’t believe it was going to happen. Only in the morning, after we received the message ‘Tonight we fly to the real thing’ – I realized that this is not another dress rehearsal. It’s happening now.”

N., a reservist and married father, said that he was most worried about his family. “My biggest worry was for them,” he says. “We knew the enemy’s capabilities and plans. I couldn’t say anything at home—not a word to my family. It weighed heavily on me, knowing the entire country was about to change in an instant.”

“Some of us left behind letters for our loved ones, in case we didn’t make it back. I prepared for the possibility that I, or my friends, may not return.”

He also revealed the emotions he felt about participating in the attack. “First, a deep sense of mission. Every pilot dreams of being pushed to the edge of their capabilities. Routine security flights aren’t as demanding. This mission was complex. Second, facing the enemy. We know what kind of regime we’re dealing with—one that openly calls for our destruction—and we were taking action to secure our national future.

“And third, a personal reckoning. On October 7, I was scrambled to defend the southern towns, and we were caught off guard. This time, we were the ones initiating. It felt like redemption.”

“We’re the tip of the spear. I was a fighter pilot in the lead wave, but what made it possible was the entire support structure behind us. This was a national-scale operation. Not many countries in the world can carry out something like this with such precision and coordination. I think it will be studied in military academies.”

“It started with intelligence, technical crews, and Home Front Command prepping back home—it’s a massive orchestra. Every move we make is backed by others—Mossad agents, refueling aircraft, everyone has a role. We fly in large formations, and each aircraft has a defined task: intelligence, threat suppression, strikees.”

“Fighting 1,500 kilometers from home brings a whole different level of complication—especially with the risk of technical failures,” he added. “It’s one thing to have a malfunction over Tel Aviv. It’s very different over Iran—while they’re trying to shoot you down.”

Experience from past operations—like the Israeli Air Force’s campaign over Syria, which turned the skies into “a superhighway”—helped prepare them. “There’s also cooperation with other parties,” he added, without elaborating.

“We imagined a war with much more significant pushback. In the end, every step we took worked, and that severely limited their ability to respond as they wanted. Whether it was surface-to-air missiles or air defense systems, we neutralized them early on. The opening move was highly successful. Still, this isn’t a walk in the park—we’re facing a regional power, and we’re not growing complacent.”

“That night I attacked missiles, launchers, control systems, and more in western Iran,” N. said. “Ultimately, I know that every bomb we dropped means fewer missiles will be fired at all of our families.”

N. returned to Israel hours later, early in the morning. “The first thing I did was send a message to my wife, to update her that everything was okay,” he said. “She had already connected the dots and realized for herself where I had been. On the long flight there, sometimes thoughts wander home a little. After all, you can’t completely disconnect from reality.”

The very next night, he was on the way back, this time to Tehran. “I didn’t believe it would happen so fast, literally night after night,” he said. “It’s a powerful feeling. You find yourself flying over a huge city, seeing it spread out beneath you and knowing that within it lie hidden terrorist infrastructures. You release the bombs, and the eyes follow them until they hit the target. It’s not imagination. It’s reality. We are writing history here.”

“We haven’t done everything yet, obviously. This is a huge country that has been preparing for a confrontation with us for years. There are still many targets to attack, but thanks to the work of people from all branches of security, we are going on sorties with precise intelligence that allows us to hit the terrorist centers again and again.”

“I hit tactical targets, took part in targeted killings, and struck high-value individuals. You know the lists,” he says. “Each of us got our assignment and executed it. We fly wing to wing, and we watch each other’s backs.”

“When I imagined a war over Iran, I expected more threats. But flying over Tehran, you can bring whatever weapons you want, however much you want. That’s what air superiority means. But it’s hard work. There are threats—and we handle them in real time.”

“This isn’t a quiet, surprise attack. We had to maintain operational continuity. Every few hours, new forces rotate in to manage threats and sustain momentum,” he explains.

“In the air, we fly high, get intel, and everything works with precision. But let’s be clear—it’s never perfect. Even the weapons have tolerances. What I don’t destroy, someone else will. The enemy is adapting—relocating assets, trying to avoid precision strikes—but our system works. Almost constantly, there are Israeli aircraft over Iran.”

“It’s not just about us as pilots,” he concluded. “It’s a national team effort—one made possible by an entire country working together.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)