The United States military is preparing to withdraw some of the tanker aircraft stationed at Ben Gurion Airport, which make up about 20% of the aircraft currently deployed in Israel.
The American move comes amid the agreement reached between Washington and Tehran on a memorandum of understanding intended to pave the way for a permanent end to the war.
In recent months dozens of US tanker aircraft have been parked across large areas of Ben Gurion and Ramon airports. This presence drew criticism from aviation officials in Israel. The head of the Civil Aviation Authority, Shmuel Zakai, even warned in the past, "Ben Gurion is operating in practice as a military base and not as a civilian airport."
Withdrawing some of the aircraft could somewhat relieve the current parking shortage at the airport.
At this stage most of the US tanker fleet is expected to remain in Israel. As a result, the likely impact of the planned move on Ben Gurion's operations is expected to be relatively limited.