Israeli fighter jets fly night exercise toward Iran over Iraq and Syria

Israeli Air Force fighter jets flew toward Iran through Syrian and Iraqi airspace in a night exercise on the night of Monday to Tuesday, 20 October 2026. The exercise took place as consultations between Washington and Jerusalem on resuming the war with the Islamic Republic have gathered pace.

Trey Yingst, Fox News's chief foreign correspondent, said on Tuesday that Israel held an exercise last night and sent its fighter jets toward Iran via Syria and Iraq. He did not name his source and gave no further details on the number of aircraft or the purpose of the exercise. Earlier, local sources had reported sightings of Israeli fighter jets over southern and eastern Syria and over Iraq's southern Muthanna province, and social media users reported dozens of fighter jets flying at low altitude near the Iran-Iraq border. The Israeli military, the United States, Iraq and Syria have so far neither officially confirmed nor denied the exercise.

Consultations on resuming the war with the Islamic Republic

The flights came a day after an unannounced trip to Israel by Pete Hegseth, the US war secretary. On Monday, 19 October, Hegseth met Benjamin Netanyahu for about 90 minutes and, according to the Kan network, the talks centred on the Islamic Republic. He confirmed his trip on Tuesday but declined to comment on the talks. The Hegseth-Netanyahu meeting took place amid speculation about "finishing the job" on the Islamic Republic.

An Israeli security official told Kan that a renewed confrontation with the Islamic Republic is regarded in Israel as "inevitable", but is unlikely to happen before the Israeli and American elections. It had also been reported earlier that Donald Trump rejected Netanyahu's plan for a multi-day attack on the Islamic Republic and postponed it until after the US midterm elections on 3 November.

Donald Trump: Expensive petrol is a small price

Speaking at a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, 20 October, Donald Trump said higher fuel prices are a very small price to pay for keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism. He added that America had defused the atom bomb in the "worst country in the world" and that oil prices would fall sharply once the war ends.

According to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price of a gallon of regular petrol in the country rose from $4.31 to $4.43 in four days; before the war it was about $2.98. Trump had also said earlier that only the final decision on the way to defeat the Islamic Republic remains.

The flight of Israeli fighter jets toward Iran at the same time as Hegseth's trip shows that the military option against the Islamic Republic is still on the table.