Israel Admits US Fighter Jets Used Its Bases to Strike Iran
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has admitted that United States fighter jets took off from military bases in Israel to launch attacks against Iran. According to Katz, Tehran is already aware of this.
“US fighter jets took off from Israel to carry out attacks against Iran, and the Iranians know it,” Katz told Israeli television channel Channel 14, as reported by Middle East Monitor on Wednesday (29/7/2026).
Iran has so far targeted US military facilities and bases located in neighbouring countries across the Gulf region, in retaliation for the American air strikes. However, Tehran has not directly attacked Israel for quite some time.
In a statement on Tuesday (28/7), Katz stressed that Israel had in fact wanted to strike Iranian energy targets, but the plan was firmly opposed by Washington.
“We very much wanted to attack Iran’s energy targets, but the US did not approve it at this stage,” Katz said in his statement.
He also threatened to strike Iran hard if Tehran launched a new attack on Israeli territory.
“If they attack Israel, we will respond with full force. We are ready to strike Iran independently,” the Israeli Defence Minister asserted.
So far, there has been no direct response from Iran to Katz’s statement.
US Military Intercepts Iran’s Latest Missile Attack in the Middle East
The statement was made as missiles were again detected being launched by Iran towards countries in the Middle East region. US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, reported that Iran had attempted to carry out a “surprise attack” against American targets.
“At 5.45pm local time today (28/7), Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces launched a number of ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack against US forces based in the Middle East,” CENTCOM said in a statement on social media platform X, as reported by AFP.
“All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted,” CENTCOM claimed, without specifying which areas were targeted in Iran’s latest attack.
The Iranian missile attack ended a relatively calm situation in the region since Friday (24/7) last week, following the decision by Tehran and Washington to suspend attacks after a 13-day escalation of conflict that began on 11 July.