How Last Minute US Intervention Stopped UK's Plan To Bomb Israel In 1949

In January 1949, Britain came within hours of launching a bombing mission on Tel Aviv after an aerial confrontation with Israeli forces over the Negev desert. The operation was cancelled only after direct intervention by then US President Harry Truman. Truman reportedly called then British Prime Minister Clement Attlee with a single instruction, “Don't.”

The incident occurred during the closing months of Israel's War of Independence. Israeli pilots, patrolling the Negev, mistakenly engaged British aircraft that had crossed into Israeli airspace, shooting down five planes. Israeli losses were limited to minor aircraft damage, though several planes were hit, according to a report in Ynetglobal.

The confrontation began when two British reconnaissance planes flying from bases near the Suez Canal spotted smoke from an Israeli convoy that had been attacked by Egyptian aircraft roughly half an hour earlier.

One aircraft was shot down by Israeli troops, thinking that the planes were returning Egyptian attackers. The pilot was captured. Israeli Air Force fighters then engaged several British aircraft, and the encounter became a major aerial combat. The Israeli pilots didn't realise that they were up against British and not Egyptian planes until they landed.

According to reports, after the incident, Israeli pilots sent a message to their former colleagues, stating, “Sorry about yesterday, but you were on the wrong side of the fence. Come over for a drink sometime, you'll see many familiar faces.”

The British command, however, started preparing a counterattack despite the message. Reports at the time said that squadrons based near the Suez were directed by London to prepare a dawn bombing mission against Tel Aviv. But this risked escalating tensions into direct conflict between two recently allied nations.

After learning of the plan, US diplomats in Cairo informed Washington. Aware of the possibility of a bigger conflict in the Middle East, Truman reached out to Attlee directly. According to the Ynetglobal report, the planned strike was cancelled around three hours before the planes were scheduled to take off.

The cancellation prevented a major escalation in the volatile region. The incident, largely forgotten in mainstream histories, is highlighted in the podcast “Hofert Journalism” from BePo, which examines the near-conflict and the decisive American intervention that spared Tel Aviv from attack.