Hatzor Airbase

Hatzor Israeli Air Force Base בָּסִיס חֵיל-הַאֲוִויר חָצוֹר‎
IATA: none – ICAO: LLHS
Summary
Airport type	Military
Operator	Israeli Air Force
Location	Hatzor, Israel
Elevation AMSL	148 ft / 45 m
Coordinates
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 05/23 7,905 2,409 Asphalt 11R/29L 8,040 2,451 Asphalt 11L/29R 8,005 2,440 Asphalt

Hatzor Israeli Air Force Base (Hebrew: בָּסִיס חֵיל-הַאֲוִויר חָצוֹר‎) (ICAO: LLHS), also titled Kanaf 4 (lit. Wing 4) is an Israeli Air Force military air base, located in central Israel near kibbutz Hatzor after which it is named. It was founded by Britain's Royal Air Force as RAF Qastina in 1942.

History

RAF Qastina

RAF Qastina, after the nearby Palestinian village of the same name, was an RAF station in Palestine between 1942 and 1948.

On the night of 25 February 1946, Irgun militants attacked the airbase and destroyed several parked RAF Handley Page Halifax transports. Two additional RAF airfields, RAF Lydda (Ben Gurion International Airport) and RAF Kfar Sirkin, were attacked in what became known as the "Night of the Airplanes". Altogether, the attacks destroyed 20 RAF aircraft and damaged several others. Following these attacks, the RAF vacated some of its Palestine-based planes to Egypt.

RAF Units stationed at RAF Qastina:

• No. 47 Squadron RAF (1946) Handley Page Halifax A.7 & A.9
• No. 512 Squadron RAF (1945) Douglas Dakota
• No. 644 Squadron RAF (1945-1946) Handley Page Halifax A.7 & A.9
• No. 651 Squadron RAF (1947-1948) Auster AOP6

On 15 March 1948, as the British Mandate for Palestine drew to a close, the RAF evacuated the airfield and it was taken over by Haganah forces.

Israeli Air Force Base Hatzor

On the morning of August 16, 1966, an Iraqi MiG-21 landed at Hatzor, the culmination of Operation Diamond. Munir Redfa, an Iraqi Air Force pilot, had been persuaded by the Mossad to fly the flagship of the Soviet export aircraft industry to Israel. The MiG was the most advanced aircraft in Arab inventories at the time.

Hatzor has a network of eight simulator pods which use satellite footage of countries including Lebanon and Syria to train pilots for deep strike missions.

Israeli Air Force Units

• 101st Squadron – operating F-16C
• 105th Squadron – operating F-16D

See also

• List of Royal Air Force stations