Who would come out on top?  (yes,  all aircraft being of the piston engined, monoplane variety)

Fog of war came to play in the matter,  as well.

Israel v the RAF - caught in the middle - air combat between Israel and the RAF
Since the end of Second World War, only six RAF aircraft flown by RAF pilots have been lost in air-to-air engagements; the most recent was on November 6, 1956 when a Syrian Gloster Meteor F-8 shot down an English Electric Canberra PR7 over Syria, killing one of the crew. The other five aircraft were shot down by a Canadian and three Americans, flying as volunteers for the Israeli Air Force, during three confused and controversial encounters between former comrades in arms in the skies over Israel and the barren Sinai desert.

Eventually at around 1500hrs, four Spitfire FR18's of 208 Sqn, led by Sqn Ldr Morgan, took off ......... after rendezvousing with the Tempests over Fayid, they headed for the border. The Spitfires flew in the lead at 500ft, followed by seven Tempests of 213 Sqn led by Gp Capt A F Anderson, OC 324 Wg, acting as medium cover at 6,000ft, together with another eight Tempests of 6 Sqn led by Sqn Ldr Denis Crowley-Milling providing rear top cover at 10,000ft. .......... Then, near Rafah, Anderson suddenly noticed a formation of aircraft diving to attack his section of aircraft and immediately ordered a break to starboard. However, when the 213 Sqn Tempests engaged the attacking aircraft, they suddenly discovered they were unable to return fire. (Guns Jammed [Hagar])

The four attacking aircraft were IAF Spitfires led by Ezer Weizman ........ a native Israeli who served in the RAF during the WW2, but only received his wings in 1945 after the war was finished. As his wingman Weizman had Alex 'Sandy' Jacobs, who was born in Palestine of British parents and who also served with the RAF in WW2. The two other pilots were American volunteers, Bill Schroeder and Caesar Dangott, both of whom had flown with the US Navy in WW2. As he dived towards the formation, Bill Schroeder singled out a Tempest flown by Plt Off David Tattersfield of 213 Sqn, a young, inexperienced pilot who had only been on the unit a couple of weeks. Tattersfield was probably concentrating on just maintaining formation and if he did see any Spitfires turning behind the formation, like Liquorish, he had every reason to assume they were friendly. Turning in out of the sun, Schroeder quickly got on the tail of the Tattersfield and opened fire. Tattersfield was probably killed instantly, as his aircraft was seen to turn over on its back almost immediately and dive vertically down to crash onto the desert floor and burst into flames.

As soon as he heard Anderson's warning, Crowley-Milling, flying top cover, led his section of aircraft down to attack the IAF Spitfires - their aircraft's guns operated correctly and they were able to return fire. However, when the Tempest pilots attempted to jettison the drop tanks they were carrying, to increase the aircrafts manoeuvrability, the lever used to jettison the tanks could not be moved. It was later discovered that the release pins were too heavily loaded to be released, because the ground crew had over-tightened the cradle arms after each sortie to ensure the tanks were held firmly in place.

Not expecting to come under attack, and preoccupied by watching Close descend in his parachute, the three RAF pilots probably mis-identified the two IAF Spitfires turning behind them as being part of their own formation. The IAF Spitfires pounced on the formation, assuming they were actually REAF Spitfires and responsible for the attack on the Israeli column.