Yoav Gallant: “Our aircraft have many missions, but every missile has a destination – we will reach every single member of Hamas.”

Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, during a visit to an an F-35 Squadron, stated “Our aircraft have many missions, but every missile has a destination – we will reach every single member of the Hamas.”

During his visit to the Nevatim airbase the Minister spoke with the pilots, air crew members and technicians stationed in the area. Base Commander Brig. Gen. Yotam Sigler briefed the Minister on operational activities conducted over the past week.

He said “Hamas terrorists have two options: be killed or surrender with no conditions. There is no third option. We will destroy the Hamas [terrorist] organization and strip it of its capabilities.”

Israel initially ordered a total of 50 F-35s, with the first squadron becoming operational in December 2017. However, in September of this year the Defence Ministry submitted an official letter of request to the US military’s F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office, to advance Israel’s procurement of a third F-35I squadron.

The additional 25 aircraft, to be delivered in batches of three beginning in 2027, will bring the Israeli Air Force’s F-35I fleet to 75.

The deal is estimated at $3 billion, financed by US military aid to Israel.

As of July of this year, Lockheed Martin declared that 945 F-35s worldwide had accumulated 691,000 cumulative flight hours, operating from 39 bases and aircraft carriers in nine countries around the world, and over 2,070 pilots and 14,525 maintenance personnel have been trained so far.

Yoav Gallant has been Israeli Minister of Defence since 2022. He is a former commander of the Southern Command in the Israel Defence Forces.

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Image: Ariel Hermoni (IMoD)