US Deploys Warships and Fighter Jets to Protect Israel from Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah
US Deploys Warships and Fighter Jets to Protect Israel from Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah
The United States will deploy additional warships and fighter jets to the Middle East to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies, the Pentagon said.
Tensions remain high in the region over the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and a key commander of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Missile defence forces were placed on a state of increased readiness to deploy, the Pentagon said, adding that its commitment to defend Israel was “ironclad”.
Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khamenei has vowed “harsh punishment” against Israel for the assassination of Haniyeh, and declared three days of national mourning.
The Hamas leader was killed in Tehran on Wednesday. Iran and its proxy in Gaza blamed the attack on Israel, which has not commented.
Haniyeh, 62, was widely considered Hamas’s overall leader and played a key role in negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
His death came just hours after Israel claimed it killed Fuad Shukr, the top military commander of Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
A Pentagon statement said the new deployments would “improve US force protection… increase support for the defence of Israel, and … ensure the US is prepared to respond to various contingencies”.
The deployments would include additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers, it said.
The US military had also intensified deployments before 13 April, when Iran launched an attack on Israel with drones and missiles. Israel and its allies shot down almost all of roughly 300 drones and missiles that were fired.
Israel has not commented directly on the strike which killed Haniyeh. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had delivered “crushing blows” to its enemies in recent days, including the killing of Shukr in Beirut.
He warned Israelis that “challenging days lie ahead… we have heard threats from all sides. We are prepared for any scenario”.
Earlier, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the US did not believe escalation was inevitable.
“I think we are being very direct in our messaging that certainly we don’t want to see heightened tensions and we do believe there is an off-ramp here and that is that ceasefire deal,” Singh said.
An Israeli delegation will travel to Cairo in coming days for negotiations to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, Mr Netanyahu said on Friday.
Hamas sparked the war with its 7 October attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people. Israel responded with an ongoing military operation in Gaza that has killed almost 40,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
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Casualties reported as Israeli military bombs vehicle near Tulkarem
The Israeli military has bombed a vehicle near the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, killing its occupants, according to local media reports.
The Israeli military said the car contained a “terrorist squad”, without providing more information. Israeli forces have now arrived at the site of the bombing on Attil Zeita Road near Tulkarem.
Iran attack is coming, the question is ‘when, what form it will take’
We are in this situation where there are two almost contradictory scenarios playing out together.
On one side, we have all of this talk about de-escalation. At the same time, the US is moving these military assets into place.
That is because, almost certainly, Israel knows this attack is coming. The US knows this attack is coming. Iran and its proxies – Hezbollah in this case – know this attack is coming.
The issue is that nobody knows exactly when or what form it will take.
The working hypothesis here in Washington is that we should expect to see something similar to April 13 when Iran launched those 300 missiles and rockets towards Israel. Back then, that was in response to an Israeli attack which had left a number of Iranian military personnel dead in Damascus, Syria.
It was very well-telegraphed. It gave both sides effectively what they wanted: It gave Iran the chance to show that it could retaliate and not be seen to lose face. The targets didn’t tend to be civilian areas. They were military sites.
But this is a very different scenario.
This is not being telegraphed. Nobody knows when or what the targets will be.