JERUSALEM — US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew into Israel unannounced on Monday and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ovda air base in southern Israel, Axios reported, citing two sources, as the two allies weigh whether to restart major combat operations against Iran.

The meeting brings the prospect of renewed US and Israeli strikes closer at a time when the Gulf is already absorbing Houthi attacks, disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices near $110 a barrel. It also came eight days before Israelis vote in a general election on October 27.

Defence Minister Israel Katz also took part in the talks, The National reported, citing Axios. CBS News said a senior US military official confirmed that Hegseth had met Netanyahu. Ovda hosts US refuelling aircraft and fighter jets, TRT World reported, citing Axios.

The Pentagon and the Israeli embassy declined to comment on the report. Netanyahu's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment, TRT World reported.

Hegseth did not name Israel when he confirmed the trip. In a post on X, he said it had been "an honor to visit our warfighters in @CENTCOM today", the Times of Israel reported, and CBS News said he described the troops as "on a historic mission". US Central Command oversees American forces across the Middle East.

Israel's Army Radio said the meeting was held at an air force base in the southern desert, Al Jazeera reported. Earlier on Monday, Netanyahu's office released a video of him visiting an unnamed air base in which he warned Israel's adversaries.

"I say to our enemies: Do not test us," Netanyahu said in the video, according to the Times of Israel. "You will suffer harder blows than you have suffered until now."

The same day, Netanyahu released footage of a phone call with President Donald Trump. "Donald, we have a job to finish," he told the president, according to CBS News. The National quoted him as adding: "You said it, and we'll finish it together."

The visit followed Trump's decision on Sunday to back Netanyahu openly in the election. In a Truth Social post, Trump declared his "Complete and Total Endorsement" of the Israeli leader and praised him as a partner in the US war on Iran, Al Jazeera reported. TRT World said Trump also warned that the United States might have to carry the burden itself if Israeli voters chose someone else.

Not everyone in the administration followed. Vice President JD Vance declined to endorse Netanyahu. "I'm not anti-endorsing him, but I'm not pro-endorsing him; I'm not getting involved in Israeli elections," Vance told the digital outlet 2WAY, according to Al Jazeera.

The election is the first since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza that followed. Polls project that Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition will lose its majority, though the opposition may also struggle to form a government, Al Jazeera reported. Israel's military chief, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, has put the armed forces on their highest alert and frozen leave ahead of the vote, the Times of Israel reported.

The US-Israeli war on Iran began nearly eight months ago and has settled into an uneasy lull, with major combat paused and diplomacy stalled, Gulf News reported. CBS News said Trump has floated resuming military operations after the US midterm elections on November 3.

Tehran has kept alive a seven-day ceasefire plan that it first put forward in September and that Trump rejected. Under the plan, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the Tasnim news agency, "the Strait of Hormuz will reopen on the sixth day, and negotiations will begin on the seventh day", according to CBS News. The proposal calls for the US naval blockade of Iranian ports to be lifted and sanctions eased.

Russia has stepped up its support for Iran. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Tehran on Monday, the first time Araghchi had hosted him since the war began, and said Moscow's efforts were "aimed at preventing the return of a large-scale war". Araghchi wrote on X that Iran and Russia had never worked so closely together, the Times of Israel reported.

The pressure on the Gulf is mounting. The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre said October was already the worst month for attacks on shipping near Hormuz since March, CBS News reported. Brent crude traded just under $110 a barrel on Tuesday, according to Gulf News.

Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have also stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia, which the Saudi and Turkish foreign ministers condemned, Gulf News reported. Etihad Airways has cancelled flights from Abu Dhabi to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam until October 24, the newspaper said.

Neither government has said what, if anything, was agreed at Ovda. The Israeli vote is due on October 27, a week before the US midterm elections that Trump has linked to any decision on resuming the war.