123 Squadron (Israel)

123 Squadron operates the Yanshuf — Israel's designation for the UH-60 Black Hawk — out of Palmachim Air Base.[1] Its duties include casualty evacuation and assault transport, support for Unit 669 rescue missions including the recovery of downed pilots, and the transport of troops such as Shayetet 13 commandos.[2][1] The Yanshuf's survivability, maneuverability, powerful engines, and load-carrying capacity make it well suited to the complex rescue and transport tasks the squadron undertakes.[2]

The squadron functions as a dual-purpose organization: it is both an active operational unit and a training ground for newly qualified helicopter pilots. Graduates of the IAF's helicopter flight track enter a six-month operational training program within the squadron and typically achieve full operational captain status approximately two years after completing the flight course.[3]

The lineage of Israeli Air Force helicopter aviation stretches back to the late 1950s. The first two Sikorsky S-58 helicopters arrived in Israel on February 13, 1958, followed by a third in March of that year, after a joint air force and paratroops delegation had studied French helicopter doctrine and recommended the type.[4] These aircraft were operated by the unit then known as the "Rolling Sword" squadron, which at that time concentrated all IAF rotary-wing assets in a single formation.[4] In 1962, twenty-four additional S-58s originally earmarked for the West German air force were covertly redirected to Israel, substantially expanding the fleet.[4]

In September 1965, Israel acquired thirteen Bell 47 helicopters for liaison, observation, and targeting duties — the first helicopters the IAF purchased for purposes other than combat.[5] These entered service at Tel-Nof alongside the S-58s, and all thirteen were in service during the Six-Day War of June 1967, flying on every front.[5] After that war, the IAF transferred its Bell 47 fleet to the newly formed 125th "light helicopters" squadron, while the heavier S-58s continued operational missions, including participation in Operation Tofet at Karameh on March 21, 1968, transporting troops and evacuating wounded.[4] The S-58s were retired shortly afterward, replaced by Bell 205s and Aerospatiale Super Frelons.[4]

The IAF began evaluating the UH-60 Black Hawk in 1983 as a potential replacement for its Bell 212 helicopters, conducting more than 40 flight hours and 61 sorties before recommending its purchase.[6] Ten Black Hawks arrived in Israel in August 1994 as part of a security assistance package, with additional helicopters received in 1998 and a further 24 purchased under a 2000 agreement.[6] The type saw its first Israeli operational use during Operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996, including night and adverse-weather missions.[6] 123 Squadron was formally constituted on August 8, 2002, after five of the aircraft arrived in Israel earlier that month.[2]

Unit 669 is the IAF's dedicated helicopter-borne combat search-and-rescue unit, and 123 Squadron provides the Black Hawk aircraft that carry its teams into the field.[7] Pilots, navigators, Unit 669 personnel, and mechanics operate as integrated crews, stationed at forward positions designed to reduce response time.[8] In operations over southern Lebanon, crews were based at a site in northern Israel some ten to fifteen minutes from takeoff, with the goal of getting wounded soldiers to a hospital within one hour of injury.[8] Helicopters flew low through the valleys of southern Lebanon to approach ground forces without being detected, relying on direct radio communication with troops on the ground to coordinate landings.[8]

In some situations, pilots land in the immediate vicinity of active fighting when a casualty cannot safely be moved to the rear.[8] A 2026 account of Lebanon operations described crews reaching and evacuating wounded soldiers while facing rocket fire and the threat of attacks on the aircraft itself.[9] An Air Force control officer recounted a Gaza evacuation in which 27 minutes elapsed between a soldier being struck by a sniper and the wounded man's arrival in an operating room.[8]

On October 7, 2023, the Hamas terror assault on southern Israel found the squadron in a holiday stand-down. Personnel and aircraft had to be mobilized rapidly amid significant initial confusion, and helicopters lifted off before their specific missions had been determined.[1] Among the squadron's first actions that day was flying to Atlit to transport Shayetet 13 naval commandos toward the Gaza border area.[1] Together with the Yasur (CH-53) fleet, the Yanshuf force transported approximately 1,500 troops to the area on October 7 alone and evacuated hundreds of wounded people.[1] In one documented response that morning, a helicopter reached a wounded company commander near the border 23 minutes after being scrambled — in heavy fog — and flew him to Sheba Medical Center.[1]

Once the ground offensive into Gaza began, the squadron flew to Gaza or the Lebanon border almost daily to evacuate casualties.[10] Crews had trained with ground brigades before the maneuver phase specifically to coordinate evacuation procedures and helicopter transport, a preparation that proved critical under combat conditions.[10] By November 2023, Unit 669 had completed more than 60 medical evacuations from inside the Gaza Strip and more than 200 other operations during the initial fighting in southern Israel; the report identified 123 Squadron as the Black Hawk operator supporting the unit but did not attribute every counted operation to the squadron alone.[7] A later account said the IAF had evacuated more than 2,400 soldiers since October 7 and had used that experience to continually refine the evacuation system.[8] Across the Yanshuf force as a whole, close to 2,000 wounded soldiers had been evacuated by late 2024, the majority from Gaza.[11]

The squadron's capabilities have also been applied in domestic disaster response. During the Nahal Tzafit flash-flood disaster in 2018, a 123 Squadron Yanshuf was directed south from a rescue operation near Jerusalem to assist at the scene.[12] Air crews and Unit 669 personnel worked alongside other Air Force helicopters in the rescue effort, with ten aircraft operating simultaneously in a confined area of airspace.[12]

Shortly after midnight on September 11, 2024, a UH-60 Yanshuf arrived at an IDF encampment in the Rafah area with a Unit 669 medical team assigned to evacuate a seriously wounded combat engineer.[11] The squadron's deputy commander served as the aircraft's captain.[11] During the helicopter's final landing approach, it struck the ground.[11]

IAF commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar appointed a commission of inquiry.[11] The completed investigation found that the crash resulted from a combination of a complex landing site in a combat zone, darkness, and dust kicked up by the rotor wash, which together caused the crew to lose visual contact with the ground and become spatially disoriented.[13] The investigation found no technical failure, determined that the crew were fit for the mission, and concluded that enemy fire played no part in the accident.[13] Two Unit 669 reservists were killed and seven personnel were injured; ground forces extracted the trapped crew, and additional helicopters evacuated the casualties to Soroka Medical Center.[11] The crash was reported to be the first operational accident in the IAF's Yanshuf fleet.[11]

Ynet reported that the aircraft belonged to sister Squadron 124 but was held on rescue alert with a Squadron 123 crew; the same report also described it elsewhere as a Yanshuf from Squadron 123.[11]