Israeli fighter jets flew to Iranian border in ‘power projection,’ deterrence exercise ahead of elections next week

Israeli fighter jets, along with refueling aircraft, flew over Syria and Iraq Monday night, flying to the Iranian border before returning to Israel, taking a route similar to that used during bombing campaigns earlier this year.

Residents in the Jerusalem area and Jordan Valley reported hearing multiple fighter jets in the middle of the night; however, at the time of publication, the IDF has not commented on the operation.

The flights took place one week before Israel’s elections, and within hours of the visit of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

According to Axios, the operation was meant as a warning meant to deter Iran, citing “Israeli and U.S. officials.”

The U.S. officials who spoke to Axios said the sortie was done with the knowledge that Iranian air defense systems would detect the aircraft as they approached Iranian airspace.

The Israel Air Force gave the U.S. advance notification of the sortie, explaining that the intention was for training and “power projection,” aimed at deterring Iran from launching attacks ahead of the elections.

Axios reported that some U.S. officials suspect that the sortie could have been an attempt to provoke a reaction from Iran, thus justifying an Israeli response.

Israeli political candidate Yair Golan, head of the Democrats party, shared this view online:

“Netanyahu is a sick and weak leader, clinging to power by force and willing to endanger Israel's security to save himself,” Golan wrote to his social media account Wednesday morning. “He has no legitimacy to drag Israel into another military campaign for political and personal reasons, on the eve of elections. The lives of our soldiers and citizens are not pawns in his survival struggle.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously warned that Israel’s enemies, including Iran, could attempt to disrupt the elections, either through the spreading of propaganda or via direct attacks on the country.

Some opposition candidates criticized those warnings as “fear-mongering,” meant to heighten tensions ahead of the elections.

Defense Minister Israel Katz attacked the politicians over the criticisms, saying that any future attacks by Israel’s enemies “will be licensed in the names” of the opposition candidates for “casting aspersions” on the warnings.

“Every attack on Israel and all future terrorist attacks, if God forbid there are any, will be licensed in the names of Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennett, Yair Golan, and their friends in the opposition,” Katz said in a statement, “who don’t stop attacking the prime minister and me and are casting aspersions on our efforts to warn and alert – based on information in our possession – against our enemies’ intentions to attack Israel and carry out terrorist attacks on the eve of the elections or during them – in order to influence the election results.”

The report of the IAF sortie to the Iranian border comes as the U.S. State Department ordered some diplomats and family members to depart Saudi Arabia over concerns of increased attacks by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The State Department is planning to withdraw family members from several other U.S. missions in the Middle East, US officials reportedly told Reuters.

However, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott called the report “inaccurate” in a post on social media.

This is inaccurate. The U.S. Department of State issued an ordered departure for non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia only. Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions. The safety and security of Department personnel and their families remain our highest priority, and we will continue to take all necessary steps to protect and support them.
— Tommy Pigott (@statedeptspox) October 21, 2026

Pigott said the evacuation order is only for non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, according to a report in Iran International, Iranian officials have begun preparing “for an all-out war,” as tensions with the U.S. continue.

According to reports in Iranian media, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf met with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to discuss military and economic preparations for a confrontation with the United States and Israel.

At the same time, Iran International reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have deployed large numbers of troops and military equipment to several areas of Iran’s Kurdistan region, citing the Kordestan Human Rights Network.

The deployment comes amid reports of several nations, including Iraq and Pakistan, closing their borders with Iran.

During the joint Israeli-U.S. operations in Iran earlier this year, the U.S. attempted to provide weapons to Kurdish resistance groups.

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that the Kurds took the weapons, but pro-U.S. Kurdish groups said they never received the weapons, claiming that arms were mistakenly delivered to pro-regime Kurdish groups instead.

President Trump on Wednesday night said that “we are going to have something one way or the other that’ll happen fairly soon,” while stating that U.S. is not currently conducting negotiations with the Iranian regime.

President Trump tonight tells me the U.S. is not negotiating with Iran and something will happen “fairly soon.” @NewsNation https://t.co/AYZGTlnpLy
— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_) October 22, 2026