Netanyahu’s jet makes familiar flight and US evacuates air base as Trump weighs Iran strike

While Donald Trump was considering an attack on Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu’s jet left Israel and headed across the Mediterranean.

The Wing of Zion state plane had previously left the country before attacks on Iran.

However, officials denied the move was related to military action and said it was part of regular training. The jet flew to Crete on Wednesday before returning to Israel.

This came after the United States ordered the evacuation of air bases in the region, including an unspecified number from a site in Qatar, on Wednesday evening.

Al Udeid, the largest American base in the Middle East, hosts 10,000 troops and was targeted by Iran in June in retaliation for US attacks on its nuclear facilities.

Trump has made a series of threats against Tehran, where at least 2,500 people have been massacred amid a bloody crackdown on protests in the Islamic Republic.

The President warned last night that he would take ‘strong action’ if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was sentenced to death on Wednesday. Trump is said to have been briefed in recent days on his options, including attacking non-military sites in Tehran.

On June 13 last year, Wing of Zion took off from Ben Gurion Airport, just hours after Israel launched an attack on Iran’s nuclear and missile sites.

Officials denied that the movement of Benjamin Netanyahu’s jet was related to military action and said it was part of regular training.

Donald Trump has issued a series of threats against Tehran amid a bloody crackdown on protests in the Islamic Republic

Before Iran attacked Israel on April 13, 2024, Wing of Zion departed from Nevatim Air Base, which was targeted by hundreds of missiles and drones that later bombarded the country.

Crete, where the jet will arrive on Wednesday, is a vital strategic crossroads for U.S. and NATO forces operating in the Middle East.

Crucial to Americans for its importance, Souda Bay is a naval base that hosts the only deep-sea dock in the region capable of docking a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

The jet’s movements come amid a rapidly worsening human rights crisis in Iran.

Desperate relatives of the shopkeeper who was sentenced to death for participating in anti-regime protests called on Trump today to intervene to save him.

Erfan Sultani, 26, believed to be the first protester sentenced to death in Iran’s latest uprising, is expected to be hanged today.

His family spent the night protesting outside Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, where the young man from Fardis was kept in solitary confinement.

Somayeh, one of Sultani’s cousins, told CNN: ‘We need Trump’s help now.

Erfan Sultani’s family made a last-minute desperate attempt to save him last night by protesting outside the Ghezel Hesar prison where he is being held.

Somayeh, one of Erfan Sultani’s cousins, called on Trump to intervene to save him

‘I beg you, please do not allow Erfan to be executed.’

Trump warned Iran last night: ‘If they hang them, you’ll see something’.

But Iran ignored the US President’s threats and vowed to step up executions after detaining 18,000 protesters as the regime continued its brutal crackdown on anti-government riots.

The head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, signaled speedy trials and executions for detainees on Wednesday, saying: ‘If someone burned someone, beheaded someone and set them on fire, then we have to do our job quickly.’

Soltani faces execution today after being tried, convicted and sentenced for participating in a protest on Thursday last week.

Reacting to the news of her cousin’s imminent execution, a distraught Somayeh said: ‘I was so in shock, I cried so much… I feel like I’m in a dream the whole time.’

He described Sultani as someone who ‘always wanted people to be free, at least in the most basic aspects of life’.

‘He always fought for the freedom of Iran and today we see him standing under the gallows,’ he said.

Protesters set fire to makeshift barricades near a religious center on January 10

Protesters dance and cheer around a bonfire in Tehran on January 9

He denied that Soltani had ‘used violence’ during the protests, instead insisting that ‘all the destruction’ had been carried out by the regime itself.

‘They are making up charges against young people to execute them,’ he added.

He called on the US President to intervene urgently to help demonstrators, facing a deadly crackdown from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s theocratic government.

‘People took to the streets, trusting Trump’s words,’ he said.

According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 2,571 people have already been killed in the security forces’ bloody crackdown on protests.

The figure dwarfs the number of deaths in any protest or unrest in Iran in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.