During the first ArabIsraeli War, Britain remained technically neutral but its forces were still operating over or near their former Palestine protectorate. On 07 January 1949, the last day of the War, four British Spitfires were shot down by Israeli ground forces and fighter planes. They were mistaken for Egyptians who also operated Spitfires, but British reaction to this incident was hard to predict. Israeli Air Force sent a flight of four of their own Spitfires over Rafah while RAF sent a heavily escorted recon flight to search for their missing pilots in the same area. The two formations merged and a fight developed. The leader of the Israeli flight was Ezer Weizman, the country's future president.

Main sources:

Robert Gandt: Angels in the Sky: How a Band of Volunteer Airmen Saved the New State of Israel
https://amzn.to/4cTQyHh

RAF Historical Society Journal No 38
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/document...

Shlomo Aloni Israeli Air Force Operations in the 1948 War: Israeli Winter Offensive Operation Horev 22 December 1948–7 January 1949
https://amzn.to/3xPaah0

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#militaryaviationhistory #arabisraeliconflict #spitfire