ISTANBUL / Khaled Youssef / Anadolu

The Israeli Channel 12 reported on Monday that adding 7 US refueling planes at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv would lead to the cancellation of about 5,000 travel tickets per day, amid preparations related to bolstering the US military presence in the region.

The channel said that estimates raised during discussions of the emergency plan at Ben Gurion Airport indicated that adding 7 US refueling planes at the airport would lead to the cancellation of about 5,000 travel tickets per day.

It pointed out that this comes within warnings of operational and financial losses that may result from allocating additional space for US military aircraft at the airport.

On Sunday, the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that Washington informed Tel Aviv of its intention to escalate its attacks against Iran in the coming few days.

The authority stated that the United States recently transferred additional equipment and munitions to Israel to support US warplanes.

It added that more than 10 refueling planes arrived in Israel from Europe and from the Al Udeid base in Qatar, as part of preparations for the possibility of US interests being targeted by Iranian attacks.

This comes at a time when Israeli media reported the arrival of more US refueling planes to Israel, as part of preparations to confront possibilities of security escalation against Iran.

The Israeli website Walla also quoted an Israeli Air Force source, unnamed, as saying that the US military intends to deploy about 100 refueling planes at Israeli military bases and Ramon Airport in southern Israel.

The source added that if US operations against Iran expand, it might require deploying more refueling planes inside Israel, including at Ben Gurion Airport.

The website indicated that 14 additional US refueling planes had already arrived in Israel over the weekend.

Days ago, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority noted that "the United States began redeploying refueling planes, previously moved to Europe, back to the Middle East and Israel, on the background of renewed military confrontation with Iran."

It pointed out that restrictions on landing US military refueling planes at Ben Gurion Airport were lifted following a US protest against those restrictions.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the crisis arose after freezing a plan to clear space for US refueling planes at Ben Gurion Airport in order to allocate additional space for civilian aircraft during the peak summer travel season.

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched an aggression against Iran that resulted in more than 3,000 deaths, according to Tehran, which responded with attacks that killed Americans and Israelis, then a period of calm prevailed.

As of Sunday evening, Israel has not publicly participated in the current confrontation between Washington and Tehran, which entered its second week, after President Donald Trump announced on July 8 that the ceasefire stipulated in the memorandum of understanding signed on June 18 had ended.

Trump's announcement came after Iran targeted three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran insists on imposing a mechanism to regulate the passage of ships through the strategic waterway, while Washington demands guaranteeing freedom of navigation and its security in the strait.