How Israel Took Control of Iran’s Skies

Just four days into its ferocious air campaign, Israel appears to have gained a decisive edge in its escalating conflict with Iran: aerial supremacy over Iran.

The Israeli military said Monday that it can now fly over the country’s capital, Tehran, without facing major resistance after crippling Iran’s air defenses in recent strikes, enabling Israel to hit an expanding range of targets with relative ease.

Such control over Iran’s skies, military analysts say, is not just a tactical advantage—it’s a strategic turning point. Air supremacy gives Israel the freedom to escalate its bombing campaign, look for additional targets, and possibly redraw the rules of deterrence in a region where missile salvos and proxy wars have long defined the limits of conflict.

Soon after declaring control of Tehran’s skies, Israel warned residents and workers in the capital to evacuate, and later appeared to strike the headquarters of Iran’s state television broadcaster while anchors were live on air. It was a symbolically potent moment: a demonstration not just of reach, but of psychological dominance.

Israel’s aerial ascendancy is not free of risks. Backed into a corner, the Iranian regime may consider its survival at stake and could take more extreme measures. Iran has limited tools given the setbacks it has suffered over the last two years, but it still has terrorist proxies around the world and has attempted assassinations of major figures in the past. It might also try to sprint for a nuclear weapon in one of its remaining underground facilities.

The Israeli offensive—codenamed Operation Rising Lion—was launched Friday after the IAEA concluded that Iran had moved closer to the threshold of producing a nuclear weapon. Since then, Israel has carried out one of the most intense and far-reaching air…