Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets arrive in Israel days before airstrikes on Gaza resume killing 400+ people

Published by Brent Patterson on March 18, 2025March 18, 2025

Photos: Israel has reportedly deployed Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets in “beast mode” (carrying internal and external weapons weighing up to 22,000 pounds); Palestinian families grieving following airstrikes on Gaza last night.

On March 18, Aljazeera reported: “At least 404 Palestinians have been killed and 562 wounded as Israel launched a massive assault on Gaza, shattering the fragile two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas. Tuesday’s attack took place across Gaza, including in Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza, Gaza City in the north, and central areas like Deir el-Balah.”

The airstrikes reportedly began around 2 am Gaza time on Tuesday morning (8 pm Monday night in Ottawa).

New F-35s manufactured by Lockheed Martin

Just two day ago the Israeli Air Force (IAF) posted on X: ‘Three “Adir’ (F-35I) fighter jets, manufactured by @LockheedMartin, landed last week at Nevatim Airbase. The three jets will join the IAF and the 116th Squadron, bearing the IAF insignia. The expansion of the ‘Adir’ fleet significantly enhances the lethal capabilities of the IAF.”

We now see this social media post from a Palestinian journalist and commentator.

“Over 15,000 operational flight hours”

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has previously noted: “The world’s largest weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using extensively to bomb Gaza.”

Now, the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayrom reports: “[The arrival of the F-35s last Thursday follows] months of conflict that have seen the Israeli F-35 fleet accumulate over 15,000 operational flight hours across multiple combat theaters. …Originally designed to carry weapons internally to maintain stealth characteristics, the Israeli F-35i’s capabilities have been expanded during the current conflict. The Flight Test Center, working jointly with Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon’s F-35 program, successfully developed the ability to mount external JDAM precision-guided munitions on the aircraft’s wings.”

“Beast mode” includes 2,000-pound bombs

TWZ, “an essential resource for the defense industry”, further reports: “The Israeli Air Force has confirmed that it’s the first F-35 operator to use the ‘beast mode’ in combat. The exact configuration used is unclear, although a photo published … on X shows … four external 2,000-pound class GBU-31 JDAMs [plus] a single AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile can be seen in one of the internal weapons bays…”

Transfers of weapons likely violates international law

On February 23, 2024, thirteen United Nations Special Rapporteurs along with several Independent Experts and Working Group members issued a statement, endorsed by others including the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Mary Lawlor, that says: “Any transfer of weapons or ammunition to Israel that would be used in Gaza is likely to violate international humanitarian law and must cease immediately.”

Mary Lawlor.

While the statement from UN experts highlights the responsibilities of States, calls for them “to immediately halt arms transfers to Israel”, notes that military exporters to Israel include Canada, it further affirms: “Arms companies contributing to the production and transfer of arms to Israel and businesses investing in those companies bear their own responsibility to respect human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law.”

Human rights defenders killed

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that at least 48,577 Palestinians have been confirmed dead and 112,041 wounded since October 2023.

Among the dead are human rights defenders.

In its Global Analysis 2023/24 released in May 2024, Front Line Defenders stated: “Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”

On January 16, 2025, Ihab Marwan Kamal Faisal of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and his family were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.

In February 2024, in two separate incidents, two of PCHR’s lawyers, Nour Abu Al-Nour and Dana Yaghi, were also killed along with their families by Israeli airstrikes.

“Aiding and abetting” crimes

Just prior to the DSEI arms show in London, UK in 2019, Amnesty International commented: “Legal concepts of ‘corporate complicity’ in and the ‘aiding and abetting’ of international crimes continue to evolve and could in the future apply to arms companies that continue supplying weapons in the knowledge that they may be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.”

The CANSEC arms show

Lockheed Martin and other weapons companies identified by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) as “profiting the Gaza genocide” will be present in Ottawa this coming May 28-29 for the CANSEC arms show.

We note this mobilization being planned to challenge this arms show.

We continue to follow this.