On Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz told military reporters that Israel is developing space lasers to carry out attacks above the Earth.

“One of the central goals which the prime minister and I set is that we are recruiting the best minds,” said Katz. “As of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability.”

The defense minister continued: “If we achieve this, it will ensure the advantage of deterrence, of the ability to attack, destroy, and all of the other matters, versus our enemies with large resources.”

But Monday was the first time that Katz specifically mentioned space lasers.

Israel is already a leading country in this field, having developed Iron Beam as a land-based space laser. During a recent visit to Elbit, The Jerusalem Post both witnessed and was informed of work on future fighter jet-based lasers.

It was seemingly clear that Katz was referring to Iran. Notably, during the 2026 war, Israel struck multiple Iranian facilities related to the space war, including those that were developing capabilities to attack satellites in space.

What remains unclear is whether Katz seeks to deter Russia and China from assisting Iran in the space race and other matters.

However, his statement that no other country has these capabilities was not entirely accurate. Both Russia and China have performed attacks on their own satellites in prior years, and convincingly destroyed their test targets.
According to foreign reports, lasers could potentially destroy enemy satellites and incinerate debris that attacks in space may cause.

Some have speculated that Israel could destroy enemy satellites using the Arrow 3 missile system, as, currently, it can strike ballistic missiles in space.

However, due to the same issue that Russia and China already experienced with debris, many countries are working on other techniques, such as paralyzing, damaging, jamming, dragging, or else using lasers against satellites in space.

Katz’s statements both last week and this week are the clearest to date from any senior Israeli official.

Notably, if Iran or other enemies advanced past Israel in space, they could attack Israeli satellites and reduce its surveillance capabilities.