U.S. plans to move Navy ships and military aircraft closer to Israel in a show of support as conflict rages on in Middle East after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel
- The U.S. will send military ships and aircraft closer to Israel as a show of support
- Washington believes Hamas’ latest attack may have been motivated to disrupt a potential normalizing of Israel-Saudi Arabia ties
- The spiraling violence threatens to start a major new war in the Middle East
The United States will send multiple military ships and aircraft closer to Israel as a show of support, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
It comes as Washington believes Hamas’ latest attack may have been motivated to disrupt a potential normalizing of Israel-Saudi Arabia ties.
Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli towns as the country suffered its bloodiest day in decades on Saturday.
Israel battered Palestinians with air strikes in Gaza on Sunday, with nearly 1,000 reportedly killed on both sides.
The spiraling violence threatens to start a major new war in the Middle East.
The United States will send multiple military ships and aircraft closer to Israel as a show of support, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said
The spiraling violence threatens to start a major new war in the Middle East
Austin also added the United States will provide munitions to Israel, and that its security assistance will begin moving on Sunday.
The Pentagon will be adding fighter jets to the region as well, he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that additional assistance for the Israeli Defense Forces was on its way to Israel and more would follow in the coming days, the White House said after their call.
Austin said he ordered moving a carrier strike group closer to Israel, which includes the Ford carrier and ships that support it.
‘I have directed the movement of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean,’ he said in his statement.
The attack by Hamas launched at dawn on Saturday represented the biggest and deadliest incursion into Israel since Egypt and Syria launched a sudden assault in an effort to reclaim lost territory in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago.
‘It wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together, along with other countries that may be interested in normalizing relations with Israel,’ U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN earlier on Sunday.
The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets
Hamas on Saturday said the attack was driven by what it called escalated Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had highlighted threats to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the continuation of an Israeli blockade on Gaza and Israeli normalization with countries in the region.
Netanyahu last month said he believed his country was on the cusp of peace with Saudi Arabia, predicting that the move could reshape the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s two holiest shrines, has long insisted on the Palestinians’ right to statehood as a condition of recognizing Israel – something many members of Netanyahu’s nationalist religious coalition have long resisted.
The United States on Sunday said that Saudi-Israel normalization efforts should continue despite the latest attack.
‘We think it would be in both countries’ interests to continue to pursue this possibility,’ U.S. Deputy National Security adviser Jon Finer told Fox News Sunday.
Blinken added the United States has also taken note of reports of several Americans killed and kidnapped in Israel, and Washington is looking to verify the details and figures.
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City on Sunday
‘We have reports that several Americans were killed. We’re working overtime to verify that,’ Blinken said.
The secretary labeled the attack on Israel as a ‘terrorist attack by a terrorist organization.’
Blinken added that there was relative calm on Sunday in most of Israel but intense fighting in Gaza, an Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave that has witnessed weeks of protests by youth groups due to long-time grievances related to the Israeli military occupation, the Palestinian national cause and prolonged economic strife.
He added that there was not yet any evidence seen by the United States of Iran being behind the latest attack in Israel but he noted the long-standing ties between Iran and Hamas, which governs Gaza.
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