On July 15, 1948, with fighting raging in Israel and Tel Aviv suffering from Royal Egyptian Air Force (REAF) raids, the three B-17s departed Žatec for Israel. Still ill-equipped, the bombers were nevertheless tasked with bombing Egyptian targets en route. Flying south along the Adriatic, near Crete the bombers separated with Bill Katz and Ray Kurtz taking the only Fortress with an oxygen system and a proper sight to bomb the royal palace in Cairo, and the other two B-17s heading towards the REAF base at El-Arish. While Katz and Kurtz successfully bombed the Abdeen Palace, the other two failed to locate their target and bombed Rafah instead, and all landed that evening at Tel Nof. The three aircraft were back in action at 06:30 on the very next day, hitting the REAF base at El-Arish they had missed the previous night. As Tel-Nof was deemed vulnerable to Egyptian attacks, the aircraft then landed at Ramat David, which was to house the squadron for the remainder of the war. In the following days, until a UN-brokered ceasefire came into effect on July 18, the Fortresses struck across three fronts, attacking Majdal, Damascus and Tulkarm. Raising the average bomb load of an IAF sortie from 100 kg per sortie to 743 kg per sortie, the B-17s are credited with propelling the Israeli Air Force into the realm of modern aerial warfare.