EXCLUSIVE Inside the double life of a female Israeli fighter pilot who joined top-secret mission to bomb Iran's nuclear programme
But, as she left home one early morning in mid-June, no one in this young Israeli woman's family knew where she was headed - not even her husband.
'Major M' - her real name is classified - was about to make history in an F-16 Israeli Air Force jet.
She was taking part in 'Operation Rising Lion', a covert operation years in the planning to obliterate Iran 's nuclear and military sites.
In all, the Israeli Air Force struck more than 900 targets across Iran over a 12 day period. Iran responded with more than 500 missiles and thousands of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) killing 29.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Major M has given a rare insight into her double life in the first interview in a British newspaper with any of the pilots who took part in Operation Rising Lion.
'We have two lives,' Major M says.
'It's very surreal because you're going through something that is so big and so meaningful and so intense and chaotic. And then the next day you have to go back to the office.'
Women in Israel serve alongside men in the armed forces with almost all roles open to them.
As a Navigator, Major M operates multiple systems for the aircraft while the pilot flies the jet.
Discussing her role, she told the Mail: 'It can be intelligence systems, it can be weapons systems. The missions are so complicated these days with so much technology that it's a lot for one person to take on. So when you have a team of two, you can take on much more complicated missions and just analyse data in a very accurate and correct way.'
For security reasons, Major M was unable to go into details of her mission over Iran but she did reveal some of the deadly arsenal at her disposal.
She said: 'You have a lot of different kinds of weapons. You have GPS-oriented ones where you just have to have coordinates, and you have ones that you really have to navigate. You have to show the missile its way all the way.
'Yes there is a red button as one would imagine and there is an entire system of other tools to help you get the weapon to where it needs to but it's basically a joystick and a button.'
Recalling the build-up to the Iran operation, she says: 'The threat is so real and so close that it's very easy to tell yourself why you're doing it and why it's important and it takes over everything else. We've been training for it for many years, so it's not something that we had to come up with in the past few weeks. We knew all along how this was going to happen when it did, but specifically for this one, I don't think anyone really knew until a few hours before.'
Her parents and husband only knew after the event. She admits her family suspected she was in a covert operation but kept their anxieties to themselves.
After her first Rising Lion mission, she flew twice during the 12 days of the operation, targeting Iranian military sites, and after she says that she felt a huge sense of 'relief' and was smiling because everyone had come back safe. 'We did our mission, we didn't make any mistakes and can be proud of ourselves and go back home for our next flight.
'I've never been more proud to be a part of the Israeli Air Force and I'm very grateful to participate in all the operations and to be able to say that I've contributed to keeping my family safe, friends safe and myself because we are citizens as well.'
Israel's defence force requires national service from everyone aged 18 years onwards, with some exceptions. Major M said she was attracted to the air force because she 'always liked planes as a child'.
The air force is becoming more popular for females, she adds, saying: 'When I joined, I think there were only around 20 women, but it's grown significantly since then. I think it's now over 70.'
During this particular operation a female pilot and female navigator piloted a fighter jet for the first time in history which shows the growing trend of gender equality in the IAF.
After being accepted at flight school and enduring vigorous training, she has stayed in the air force for 13 years and entered the reserves last year where she is always in training for a war situation.
She isn't allowed to give details about the actual mission and which countries they flew over to get to Iran, but her sorties in Lebanon, in which Israel dismantled terror group Hezbollah, have prepared her well.
'It's a big thing, but I think we've all learned in the past, since October 7, that anything can happen. So you're mentally prepared for everything. You're both anxious because it's something new that we haven't done before, so it takes a minute to get used to, but we're trained in being focused and in being concentrated.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
9 hours ago
- Telegraph
Everything you need to know about the Epstein scandal and why Trump can't escape it
He's accepted a $400 million plane from Qatar as a gift, launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and suffered dozens of defeats in court. But the biggest controversy of Donald Trump's presidency, so far, has turned out to be his decade-and-a-half relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Mr Trump's friendship with Epstein is well known, but it didn't prove a real issue until his administration declined to release any more of the documents it holds on the paedophile financier. Now the US president is being questioned by reporters on his former friend at every opportunity, while the justice department is being consumed by the story and the infighting of senior figures looking to shift the blame. It has even threatened to peel away Mr Trump's ever-loyal Maga base, when nothing else would. At the same time, other figures have been sucked into the scandal, including Bill Clinton, the former president who rode on Epstein's private jet, and Lord Mandelson, the British ambassador to the US who holidayed with him. Here, The Telegraph rounds up everything you need to know about the Epstein scandal – and why Mr Trump can't escape it. Maga Prominent voices in Mr Trump's Maga movement have spent years playing into conspiracy theories that Epstein did not kill himself in 2019, and was silenced by 'clients' who feared he would expose their part in sex trafficking. Kash Patel, director of the FBI, and Dan Bongino, his deputy, have appeared on several podcasts suggesting the paedophile was silenced by a 'deep state' of shadowy government figures. And Pam Bondi, the attorney general, claimed in February she had Epstein's client list 'sitting on my desk right now to review'. So when the justice department and FBI concluded this month that Epstein did not maintain a client list, killed himself in prison, and that there was no compelling reason to produce more documents, the Maga movement erupted. 'Pam Bondi fed a monster,' said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who worked for the first Trump administration. 'And now there's a chance that the monster eats her.' Mr Trump has been increasingly drawn into a row his law enforcement lieutenants have been unable to contain and is now under pressure from his own supporters to release the full Epstein files. So far he has downplayed it as a 'hoax', urged the media to focus on figures like Mr Clinton and sought, unsuccessfully, to convince a court to release the grand jury transcripts from Epstein's 2019 case. Nevertheless, prominent Maga voices are sounding the alarm. Laura Loomer, the prominent Right-wing activist, has pushed back at the notion of an Epstein cover-up as a hoax and urged Mr Trump to appoint a special counsel to ensure complete transparency over the files, as has Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist. Birthday letter Though Mr Trump appears to have broken off his relationship with Epstein more than two decades ago, more details are still coming to light. Notably, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Trump, like Mr Clinton, had sent a birthday letter to the financier in 2003 when he turned 50, which was compiled into a leather-bound album by Ghislaine Maxwell. In the letter, which featured a drawing of a nude woman in permanent marker with his signature, Mr Trump reportedly told his then-friend they had 'certain things in common', 'enigmas never age', and ended with the words: 'May every day be a wonderful secret'. Mr Trump has fiercely denied writing or sending the letter, and has launched a defamation claim against the newspaper. Subsequent reports have said dozens of people also provided well-wishes, poems and photographs to the album, among them Lord Mandelson, the British ambassador to the US. The former cabinet minister, whom Epstein affectionately referred to as 'Petie', called the financier 'my best pal' in his birthday message, The Wall Street Journal reported. He is also said to have included a picture of a tropical island. The pair had previously holidayed in St Barts in the Caribbean, with Lord Mandelson photographed trying on a leather belt while they shopped together. A spokesman for the ambassador, who has previously said he regrets being introduced to Epstein by Maxwell, declined to comment. Bill Clinton Mr Trump is not the only US president who has been dragged into Epstein's orbit: Bill Clinton was also an associate of the financier. 'You ought to be speaking about Bill Clinton,' Mr Trump told reporters on Friday before departing for a trip to his Scottish golf courses, as he was questioned, once again, about Epstein. Mr Clinton spent nine days in Africa with the paedophile in 2002, a couple of years after he left office. They made the trip on Epstein's 'Lolita Express', accompanied by Maxwell and other figures. The following year, The Wall Street Journal reported the Democrat sent a message to Epstein on his 50th birthday in which he praised the paedophile's 'childlike curiosity'. A spokesman for Mr Clinton declined to comment to the newspaper. Mr Clinton has consistently denied any knowledge of the 'terrible crimes' committed by Epstein. 'I had always thought Epstein was odd but had no inkling of the crimes he was committing,' he wrote in his 2024 memoir, Citizen: My Life after the White House. On Wednesday, a House of Representatives committee voted to subpoena both Mr Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state. Should they testify, it will continue to keep the Epstein story in the headlines. Democrats The Democrats were shattered by their election defeats in November and the return of Mr Trump. Since January, their poll ratings have fallen further, with the party descending into factional fights and casting in vain for something to cut through with the electorate. With the Epstein files, they smell blood. Prominent Democrats are doing their best to make Mr Trump squirm over his association with the paedophile, and Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia, two congressmen, have approached the Epstein estate executors about getting hold of the alleged birthday album. Mr Khanna also led an attempt with Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman and regular thorn in Mr Trump's side, to schedule a vote to compel the administration to release the Epstein files. That attempt faltered when Mike Johnson, the House of Representatives speaker, refused to schedule a vote, and Congress broke early for the summer recess. Not all of it is congressional manoeuvres, either. The party's governing body, the Democratic National Committee, has launched a series of attack ads on Right-wing YouTube channels urging Republican voters to hound their representatives over the documents. 'Call your representative. Demand they release the Epstein files,' one advert demands, over a clip of Mr Trump dancing with Epstein in the 1990s. Mid-terms Republicans in Congress are wary of a mauling in the mid-terms next year over the president's refusal to produce the Epstein files. One congressional aide told The Telegraph their boss was coming under extreme pressure from voters, saying: 'When you don't release information and do this cover up, you essentially fuel conspiracy theories and misinformation.' Mr Johnson appears to have tried to have it both ways, treading a fine line between the voters he will need to maintain control of the House – and keep hold of his speaker's gavel – and Mr Trump. Perhaps the president's closest ally in Congress, he appeared to turn on him recently when he demanded the release of 'everything' the government was holding on Epstein. At the same time, he cut short the congressional session, thus avoiding a vote on releasing the documents, which would have forced representatives to choose between potentially angering their constituents or the president. Mr Johnson, who was accused of 'running away… to cover up for paedophiles' by Democrats, has denied the Epstein vote influenced his decision. Ghislaine Maxwell Epstein may have killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, but Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year prison sentence for procuring young girls for her former boyfriend, is still around. Mr Trump is likely to have met her in the late 1980s while moving in the same gilded circles of the New York elite, when she was acting as a social emissary for her father, Robert Maxwell, the late publishing titan and fraudster. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the pair were regularly photographed together, attending the same dinner parties and functions. On at least one occasion, the pair flew together on the 'Lolita Express', Epstein's private jet. 'Donald liked Epstein but he was crazy about Maxwell, a very charming lady,' Steven Hoffenberg, a former business associate of Epstein, told The Washington Post before his death in 2022. With the Trump administration under immense public scrutiny, Maxwell was questioned by Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general, on Thursday and Friday. She did not invoke her Fifth Amendment defence to avoid answering questions, her lawyer said, and her brother told The New York Post that she was assembling new evidence to present to the Trump administration. Critics have suggested Mr Trump is dangling a sentence reduction or pardon, he has not ruled one out, if Maxwell can shift the spotlight away from him and onto his political opponents.
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Reuters
Iran executes two members of opposition group for attacking infrastructure
DUBAI, July 27 (Reuters) - Iran executed two members of the banned Mujahideen-e-Khalq group for attacking civilian infrastructure with homemade projectiles, the judiciary news outlet Mizan said on Sunday, amid criticism from Amnesty International over a "grossly unfair" trial. Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamloo, identified as "operational elements" of the MEK, were sentenced to death in September 2024 - a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court, which denied their request for a retrial, Mizan said. "The terrorists, in coordination with MEK leaders, had ... built launchers and hand-held mortars in line with the group's goals, fired projectiles heedlessly at citizens, homes, service and administrative facilities, educational and charity centres," the report said. The defendants were indicted with "moharebeh", - an Islamic term meaning waging war against God - destroying public property and "membership in a terrorist organisation with the aim of disrupting national security." Amnesty International said that Ehsani-Eslamloo and Hassani were arrested in 2022 and maintained their innocence during a trial which the rights group called "grossly unfair and marred by allegations of torture and forced confessions.' "According to informed sources, agents interrogated them without lawyers present and subjected them to torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings and prolonged solitary confinement, to extract self-incriminating statements," it said in January. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the number of people executed in Iran rose to at least 901 in 2024, the highest number since 2015. The MEK, known in English as People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, was a powerful leftist-Islamist group that staged bombing campaigns against the shah's government and U.S. targets in the 1970s but ultimately fell out with the other factions of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since then, the MEK has opposed the Islamic Republic and its leadership in exile has been Paris-based. The group was listed as a terrorist organisation by the U.S. and the European Union until 2012.
Telegraph
12 hours ago
- Telegraph
Israeli soldiers and generals are turning their back on Netanyahu over Gaza
Ron Fiener looks philosophical as he points to where the bullet struck the side of his helmet, knocking him off his feet. Just a few millimetres difference and he would have been killed, like six of his comrades were when they walked into a house in southern Lebanon last October, believing – wrongly – that it had already been checked for terrorists. 'It was a really horrible day,' the 26-year-old recalled. 'They opened the door, and behind the door were two Hezbollah fighters who immediately started firing with their rifles. Four soldiers died immediately.' Mr Fiener, a captain in Israel's 933rd Nahal Brigade, acquitted himself well, picking himself up and dragging wounded colleagues to safety as the battle raged for five hours. It was his destiny, having dreamed of becoming – like his father – an infantry officer for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) since he was a child. It is a role which carries elite status in Israel and has been the foundation stone for many a stellar business or political career. But he now chooses a different path. He is refusing to report for another stint of reserve duty and a potential deployment to Gaza, in disgust at the ongoing war that has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. He said: 'When the bombing of Gaza started again, it became clear to me that our government wants to make this war as long as they can – they don't want to end it. 'I knew then I can't go back to serving in this war.' Sentenced to 25 days in jail by Israel for refusing to serve, Mr Fiener is believed to be part of a growing wave of young Israeli reservists who feel they can no longer participate in their country's war in Gaza. The majority are not showing up to call-ups, either 'forgetting' to check their emails or pleading medical or family emergencies. Mr Fiener believes the images of starving children inside Gaza will mean fewer soldiers will turn up. Immense pressure has been building on Israel over the dire humanitarian conditions inside the strip, with aid agencies warning of mass malnutrition and widespread hunger. France on Thursday said it would more to recognise Palestine as a state. On Sunday the IDF said it was introducing a 'tactical pause' in fighting in some areas of Gaza. Mr Fiener's opinion on the futility of the conflict appears to be shared by a rising number of serving and retired senior officers who are turning against Benjamin Netanyahu's war. Gen Assaf Orion, the former head of strategic planning at the IDF, said while there were clear strategic goals in the Israel campaigns against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, there was no longer any clear military imperative for the continuation of military operations in Gaza. He told The Telegraph: 'In Gaza, I suspect that the strategic train of ends, ways and means was kidnapped by ulterior motives. 'I think the main reason for a prolonged war in Gaza is political expediency.' Eran Etzion, a former deputy head of Israel's national security council, was even blunter. He said: 'By now it has long been clear to most Israelis that the main reason the Gaza campaign lingers on is because of Netanyahu's political, personal and judicial interests, and he needs the war to go on in order to sustain and even enhance his grip on power.' Many believe Mr Netenyahu fears his government will collapse if the war ended as ultra-nationalist parties in his coalition would abandon him. 'That's the main reason. It has nothing to do with Hamas and everything to do with Netanyahu.' Many believe Mr Netenyahu fears his government will collapse if the war ended as ultra-nationalist parties in his coalition would abandon him. If even some of the spate of leaks from Israel's security cabinet are to be believed, the scepticism is not confined to retired generals. Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, the IDF's chief of staff, is said to have argued that there is little more to be gained by continuing the campaign – particularly without risking the lives of the approximately 20 remaining living hostages. Although degraded into a series of, in effect, independent guerrilla units, Hamas continues to fight amid the rubble, sending a stream of IDF body bags back to Israel. Mr Netanyahu insists that Hamas must not just be broken as a military and governing force, but eradicated entirely, arguing at the same time that the best way to secure a hostage deal is to fight even harder. Israel's negotiating team returned home from Doha empty-handed this weekend, amid widespread pessimism that a deal will be agreed any time soon. The Jewish state's reputation on the international stage is in crisis, with traditional allies such as Britain, France, Canada and Australia queuing up to condemn the escalating reports of starvation. Professional servants of democratically elected leaders, like Lt Gen Zamir and those under him, are caught in the middle. This was perhaps best demonstrated this month by his opposition to a scheme of Israel Katz, the defence minister, to order the entire civilian population of Gaza into a so-called ' humanitarian city ' built on the ruins of the southern city of Rafah. The military chief was reportedly anxious to protect his officers from potential complicity in a war crime, amid outrage that the zone – described by former prime minister Ehud Olmert as resembling a ' concentration camp ' – could be a precursor to forced population transfer. It would also put his troops, who would ultimately police the perimeter and facilitate the entry of aid, under significant practical pressure. The military was further worried that Hamas would interpret the humanitarian city as a signal that Israel wanted to restart fighting after the proposed initial 60-day ceasefire, thus threatening a potential deal. The IDF leadership earned the ire of Mr Netanyahu by reporting the project could take a year and cost $4bn. While the Israeli prime minister demanded a 'shorter, cheaper, more practical' plan, it is not clear whether the initiative will ever take place. The scheme may have been too much for senior generals who are already deeply unhappy about the position their troops have been placed in under the new US-backed aid system. The UN accuses the IDF of killing more than 1,000 civilians near the new aid distribution sites in Gaza. According to multiple videos and eyewitness testimony, crowd flow in and near these sites is extremely poor, and Israeli soldiers, who provide an outer ring of security for the American contractors, open fire if Palestinians come too close. In one heated security cabinet exchange, Lt Gen Zamir reportedly forced an ultra-nationalist minister to watch a video of an incident showing how close aid seekers came to his soldiers. The IDF has now captured 75 per cent of the Gaza Strip – the goal when it began Operation Gideon's Chariot, which started in May. Last week, it pushed into the town of Deir Al-Balah, the first time it is thought troops have deliberately sought to seize an area where intelligence indicated a high likelihood hostages are being held. Mr Netanyahu and his allies argue that leaving even remnants of Hamas intact in the Strip would eventually precipitate another October 7-style massacre. They have so far rejected Arab proposals for an interim government to administer the enclave in the event of a permanent ceasefire. 'We are past the culmination point' Gen Orion said: 'The Gaza war is a long way past its culmination point. 'Every military operation, like many human endeavours, has the rule of diminishing returns. 'At some point, great successes meet growing resistance and lose their efficiency. The costs rise and the benefits are lower. In Gaza, we are way past that point.' Although the true figures are closely guarded, some campaign groups and politicians believe the rate of attendance could be as low as 60 per cent. The majority are so-called 'grey refusals', who are people who plead medical problems, family issues, or who simply go abroad during the call-up window and 'forget' to check their emails. Refusals on explicit political grounds are rarer but increasing, reflected in the growing number of public letters signed by reservists denouncing Mr Netanyahu's conduct of the war, and subsequent reprimands and dismissals. Accounts have emerged of officers frantically reaching out to reservists on social media, begging them to turn up, because their ranks are so depleted. At the same time, the acrimonious issue of Haredi conscription rumbles on, with Mr Netanyahu expected to give in on promises to force ultra-orthodox Jewish young men to turn up for military service. Mr Fiener's prison sentence was considered a relatively harsh penalty for refusal, given the maximum is 30 days. But he only served one night, as the prison was largely evacuated when Iran started firing ballistic missiles at Israel in June. Waiting to see if he will be recalled to jail, he believes the pictures and videos of what's happening in Gaza will further decrease the rate of call-up response. He said: 'There are always a lot of people who are not sure if they are willing to go and every little thing can affect them.
