IDF warfare jet allowed refuel at Shannon

A newly built Israel Defense Forces (IDF) war jet deployed in Gaza last year was allowed to refuel at Shannon Airport on its way to an Israeli military base in 2021.

Military aircraft – like this electronic warfare plane used to “mark targets” – that land in the Irish state require diplomatic clearance from the foreign affairs minister, at the time Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney.

Three Palestine Action Éire activists looking to inspect a US military plane at Shannon Airport were arrested this month after breaking the airport’s perimeter fence in a van. 

This specially designed Oron Gulfstream G550 was delivered to the Israel Defense Forces in March 2021. 

The US-made aircraft left Savannah in Georgia on 15 March and was permitted to make a stopover at Shannon Airport. 

It was later photographed as it departed the Clare airport the following day on its way to Nevatim military airbase in Israel.

The IDF’s head of military research boasted about the jet’s capabilities in a press statement released shortly after its March 2021 arrival in Israel.

“We created a machine that knows how to produce and expose thousands of targets in seconds… It absorbs thousands of kilometres of territory at a precision designed for attack,” said brigadier general Yaniv Rotem.

The purpose-built aircraft was allegedly used as part of an IDF attack on Lebanon in October 2023.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment.