No, It's not israelis who operated them, there were hundereds of volunteers and pilots mainly american jews and south Africans joined the IDF during the War, Israel try to hide this fact, however, there are strong evidences of this statement, there are records for pilots speaking
English not hebrew during air battles.
This is not strange, this happened nearly in every war even in '48, Plz, read about Charles Winters..
and
Let's check what the Egyptian chief of military intelligence "Fuad Nassar" said about that:
(They ordered the IAF not to approach the canal to avoid Egyptian SAMs and ground air defenses, however, they destroyed a SAM battalion near the Suez Canal, we didn't know how they did it, and shortly after that they destroyed another one.
Sadat called me and asked me how this happened, I replied "I don't know, we will study the situation, and we will know soon". There was a genius scientist in the military intelligence, he left studying medicine, and joined us in the military researches unit in the military intelligence, he was very genius and he was interested in exploring everything new in the military field, he examined the destroyed sites accurately and then told me that the US army invented a new sort of missiles which could be deployed in aircrafts and launched about 30 KM from its target, this missile inversely tracks radar waves, and destroys completely its target. Then we knew that these missiles used by Israel, haven't yet used by US army.
I sent these researches and information to President Sadat, then he said his famous statement "I can fight Israel, but I can't fight US".
After the war a senior American commander who planned operation Nickel grass visited Egypt after in order to give a lecture in Nasser academy, I was still chief of military intelligence, I said to him:
"I will attend your lecture tomorrow; I will ask you three questions, so prepare your answers until tomorrow...
1- Supplying enemy during the battle is considered participating in the war? We have captured Israeli tanks which didn't exceed 200 KM; these were tanks you provided through operation Nickel grass.
2- Our intelligence knew that your airlift planes came through Libyan costs; I sent this information to President Sadat, Mubarak immediately ordered EAF to intercept those USAF aircrafts without engaging with them, but as our aircrafts came close to your airlift, you downed one.
3- Who ordered to use these missiles which destroyed our SAMs and radars along the canal? US army hasn't even used them before, who gave permission to use them against Egyptians?"
He replied "Please, don't attend the lecture tomorrow, I will coordinate with US administration, I promise to send you answers for your questions".
After nearly a month he sent me a letter, and the answers were as follows:
1- Supplying the enemy in the battlefield is not considered as a direct participation in the war.
2- As for this downed aircraft, we were defending our selves.
3- For those missiles,
there are Jewish American officers were volunteers for Israel and supplied them with latest weapons.
But he didn't tell me who gave permission to use these weapons; he just told me that they were volunteers. I sent this information to President Sadat, when he read the letter he said "This letter is the best card I have in the incoming negotiations".)