In her other life she works in marketing, has a husband and a loving family. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But, as she left home one early morning in mid-June, no one in this young Israeli woman’s family knew where she was headed – not even her husband.

‘Major M’ – her real name is classified – was about to make history in an F-16 Israeli Air Force jet.

She was taking part in ‘Operation Rising Lion’, a covert operation years in the planning to obliterate Iran’s nuclear and military sites.

In all, the Israeli Air Force struck more than 900 targets across Iran over a 12 day period. Iran responded with more than 500 missiles and thousands of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) killing 29.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Major M has given a rare insight into her double life in the first interview in a British newspaper with any of the pilots who took part in Operation Rising Lion.

‘We have two lives,’ Major M says.

‘It’s very surreal because you’re going through something that is so big and so meaningful and so intense and chaotic. And then the next day you have to go back to the office.’

‘Major M’ said the mission to target Iran’s nuclear sites had been in development for years

‘The threat is so real and so close that it’s very easy to tell yourself why you’re doing it and why it’s important and it takes over everything else,’ says Major M

An F-16 jet as used by the Israeli Air Force during ‘Operation Rising Lion’

Women in Israel serve alongside men in the armed forces with almost all roles open to them.

As a Navigator, Major M operates multiple systems for the aircraft while the pilot flies the jet.

Discussing her role, she told the Mail: ‘It can be intelligence systems, it can be weapons systems. The missions are so complicated these days with so much technology that it’s a lot for one person to take on. So when you have a team of two, you can take on much more complicated missions and just analyse data in a very accurate and correct way.’

For security reasons, Major M was unable to go into details of her mission over Iran but she did reveal some of the deadly arsenal at her disposal.

She said: ‘You have a lot of different kinds of weapons. You have GPS-oriented ones where you just have to have coordinates, and you have ones that you really have to navigate. You have to show the missile its way all the way.

‘Yes there is a red button as one would imagine and there is an entire system of other tools to help you get the weapon to where it needs to but it’s basically a joystick and a button.’

Recalling the build-up to the Iran operation, she says: ‘The threat is so real and so close that it’s very easy to tell yourself why you’re doing it and why it’s important and it takes over everything else. We’ve been training for it for many years, so it’s not something that we had to come up with in the past few weeks. We knew all along how this was going to happen when it did, but specifically for this one, I don’t think anyone really knew until a few hours before.’

Her parents and husband only knew after the event. She admits her family suspected she was in a covert operation but kept their anxieties to themselves.

After her first Rising Lion mission, she flew twice during the 12 days of the operation, targeting Iranian military sites, and after she says that she felt a huge sense of ‘relief’ and was smiling because everyone had come back safe. ‘We did our mission, we didn’t make any mistakes and can be proud of ourselves and go back home for our next flight.

‘I’ve never been more proud to be a part of the Israeli Air Force and I’m very grateful to participate in all the operations and to be able to say that I’ve contributed to keeping my family safe, friends safe and myself because we are citizens as well.’

Israel’s defence force requires national service from everyone aged 18 years onwards, with some exceptions. Major M said she was attracted to the air force because she ‘always liked planes as a child’.

The air force is becoming more popular for females, she adds, saying: ‘When I joined, I think there were only around 20 women, but it’s grown significantly since then. I think it’s now over 70.’ 

During this particular operation a female pilot and female navigator piloted a fighter jet for the first time in history which shows the growing trend of gender equality in the IAF.

After being accepted at flight school and enduring vigorous training, she has stayed in the air force for 13 years and entered the reserves last year where she is always in training for a war situation.

She isn’t allowed to give details about the actual mission and which countries they flew over to get to Iran, but her sorties in Lebanon, in which Israel dismantled terror group Hezbollah, have prepared her well.

‘It’s a big thing, but I think we’ve all learned in the past, since October 7, that anything can happen. So you’re mentally prepared for everything. You’re both anxious because it’s something new that we haven’t done before, so it takes a minute to get used to, but we’re trained in being focused and in being concentrated.’