Israel’s transport minister, Miri Regev, has ordered a halt to the deployment of additional US Air Force refuelling aircraft at Ben-Gurion Airport, capping the number at 20 and warning that any excess would force the cancellation of up to 50,000 passenger tickets during the peak summer travel season. The directive, issued on Tuesday, came after the United States suspended a planned evacuation of its tanker fleet from the facility, a move that Israeli aviation authorities say has already consumed parking stands and gate capacity at the country’s main international gateway. According to Israeli officials, the airport had been hosting as many as 75 American tanker and transport aircraft at the height of operations against Iran, and roughly 33 remain on the ground, occupying space normally used by civilian carriers.

The US freeze on the withdrawal, reported by Israeli broadcasters and confirmed by airport officials, is being read in regional capitals as a logistical signal of preparations for a sustained or expanded air campaign. US Central Command announced on Tuesday that it had conducted a five-hour wave of airstrikes against Iranian positions across multiple locations, describing the operation as aimed at disrupting Iran’s ability to target civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The tanker presence at Ben-Gurion has been a critical enabler of such long-range sorties, and the decision to keep the aircraft in place reverses a drawdown that began after Washington and Tehran reached a memorandum of understanding on ending hostilities—an understanding that, according to statements from President Donald Trump, collapsed following renewed Iranian attacks on commercial shipping.

Viewed from Tehran, the continued presence of US tankers on Israeli soil is framed as an occupation of civilian infrastructure that inflicts economic damage on the Israeli aviation sector. Iranian state media reported that the airport has already suffered losses of 700 million shekels, with projections of 2 billion shekels by year-end if the aircraft are not removed, and noted that Israeli carriers have been forced to park planes at foreign airports in Cyprus, Greece, Jordan, and Egypt, incurring additional costs. The standoff has also rippled through energy markets: Brent crude rose above $86 a barrel, its highest in four weeks, as traders priced in the renewed disruption to Hormuz shipping and the US Treasury’s revocation of a temporary waiver that had allowed limited Iranian oil exports. In parallel, Saudi Arabia has sought US backing for its own military operations against Houthi forces in Yemen, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman briefing President Trump ahead of strikes, according to officials cited in regional media, following a rare direct flight by an Iranian airline to Sanaa that Riyadh viewed as a weapons-smuggling risk.

Regev’s order is described by her office as a temporary measure to protect civilian air traffic, and the Israeli airports authority has warned that failure to resume the evacuation will trigger mass cancellations this month. Despite the ban, Israeli officials confirmed that a US tanker landed at Ben-Gurion on Tuesday, underscoring the gap between the political directive and operational reality. The dossier remains open: the US has not publicly commented on the Israeli cap, and no new timeline for the withdrawal of the aircraft has been announced.