Israel bars additional US refuelers from landing at Ben Gurion Airport

Israel decided on Tuesday to bar additional US refueling aircraft from landing at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv over congestion at the airport, according to Israeli media.

“Hundreds of thousands of plane tickets were bought by Israelis to fly and enjoy their summer vacation,” Transportation Minister Miri Regev said in a statement carried by The Times of Israel news portal.

“We promised that we will enable commercial flights and we will not cancel a single ticket because of American refueling planes,” she added.

“Therefore, I have given instructions that we will not allow any US refueling tankers to land at Ben Gurion Airport beyond the agreed number of 20 planes and the remaining planes will land at Air Force bases.”

Israel’s Airports Authority has warned that unless more US aircraft are removed from Ben Gurion Airport, as many as 50,000 flight tickets could be at risk of cancellation in the coming weeks.
Israel’s state broadcaster KAN said there are 34 refueling aircraft in Israel, four of which arrived during the current escalation with Iran.

According to the same source, the US pledged to keep only 20 refueling aircraft in Israel, without providing further details.

There was no immediate comment from the US military on the Israeli decision.

Tensions escalated between the US and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, with the two sides exchanging attacks despite a Pakistani-mediated memorandum of understanding aimed at ending their conflict and reaching a lasting peace agreement.

US President Donald Trump said Monday that Washington would likely take control of operations in the strait and expected other countries to pay Washington for protecting the strategic waterway.

Iran’s military, for its part, vowed that it will not allow the US to "interfere" in the strait's management.