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The Israeli military said additional U.S. aerial refueling tankers being sent to Israel will be stationed at military air bases rather than Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, as a dispute between Washington and Jerusalem over the planes' parking arrangements escalated into a diplomatic standoff involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli military said the decision was made to minimize potential congestion and disruption on civilian air routes and that the move to redirect the tankers to military bases in Israel was made by the U.S. in coordination with the Israeli military.
The statement recalled that Israel had previously capped the number of U.S. refueling planes at Ben-Gurion Airport, the country's main international gateway, at 20, in an effort to prevent flight cancellations and delays during the summer travel season.
Reports had indicated the U.S. administration is planning to send dozens of additional refueling planes to Israel amid the possibility of expanding strikes on Iran.
The U.S. reportedly already had approximately 60 refueling planes stationed between Ben-Gurion International Airport and Ramon Airport, with the additional aircraft intended to bring that number back to the level seen at the start of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war.
Israel had separately moved to ban U.S. refueling planes from landing at Ben-Gurion altogether before reversing that decision following objections from Washington.
According to Axios, the Trump administration notified Israel it was sending dozens more refueling planes to the country ahead of a potential expansion of military operations against Iran, according to three U.S. and Israeli officials.
Axios reported that Trump, after being presented with several new military options in a Situation Room meeting on Tuesday, was considering a broader offensive against Iran than the current strikes around the Strait of Hormuz, including bombing Iranian power infrastructure, further strikes on nuclear facilities to bury enriched uranium deeper, and a possible strike on the Pickaxe Mountain underground site.
Trump had not made a final decision but appeared willing to escalate to pressure Iran into opening the Strait of Hormuz and accepting his nuclear demands, and could order an escalation within days, according to Axios's sourcing.
The U.S. currently has about 30 refueling planes at Ben-Gurion and a similar number at Ramon Airport in southern Israel, with Israeli officials saying the U.S. wants to send several dozen more in the coming days to restore the wartime-peak number.
Axios noted that the U.S. military prefers operating from Ben-Gurion because other regional air bases are more exposed to Iranian attack and considered less safe for American aircraft.
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Axios reported that the refueling planes parked at Ben-Gurion for months had nearly clogged the airport, which was not a major issue when Israeli airspace was largely closed during the height of the war but has become one now that airspace has reopened and Israelis are traveling for summer vacation, raising the risk of mass flight cancellations roughly three months before an Israeli election, a scenario Axios said could be politically damaging for Netanyahu's coalition.
Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev, a close Netanyahu ally, pushed to move the U.S. planes out of Ben-Gurion or limit their number, a position Axios reported was opposed by Israel's Defense Ministry and the Israeli army.
Ynet reported that Regev said she had conducted an assessment of the situation, saying, "We are in the middle of summer; hundreds of thousands of tickets have been purchased by Israeli citizens to fly and enjoy summer vacation. We promised we would allow these flights and not cancel a single ticket because of American refueling planes. Therefore, I have instructed the Israel Airports Authority not to allow the landing of refueling planes beyond the agreed number, beyond the 20 planes that will be parked at Ben-Gurion. The rest of the planes will be parked at Air Force bases."
According to Ynet, following Israel's decision not to allow additional American tankers to land at Ben-Gurion, officials at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) protested to senior Israeli defense officials, arguing the restriction undermined the operational flexibility of U.S. forces in the region.
Ynet reported the Israeli army backed the American position internally, clarifying that the refueling planes are a strategic asset of major operational importance, though a solution was ultimately found under which the additional planes would not park at Ben-Gurion; Regev said this week they would instead be based at Air Force facilities.
Ynet reported the new tankers were expected to arrive at a pace of roughly five to eight aircraft per day, with over 60 American refueling planes having arrived in Israel to date, 33 of them parked at Ben-Gurion as of the report.
According to Jerusalem Post, a senior U.S. military source familiar with the matter said American military representatives had explicitly told Israeli military officials that the alternative bases offered to them were unsuitable, saying other proposed Israeli military bases were overcrowded and did not meet Pentagon security and operational standards, a situation the source said would make it difficult for the planes to reach full operational readiness quickly in the event of a sudden crisis.
As a result, American military representatives stated clearly that they needed to remain at Ben-Gurion, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The dispute was reported to require direct involvement from Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz to resolve, with Israel's military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, having opposed relocating the aircraft to bases in the Negev Desert.
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