US to send military ships, aircraft closer to Israel
The United States will send multiple military ships and aircraft closer to Israel as a show of support, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin says.
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 hundreds reportedly killed on both sides.
The spiralling violence threatens to start a major new war in the Middle East.
Austin also added that the United States will provide munitions to Israel and that its security assistance will begin moving on Sunday.
An F/A-18 E is launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford during flight deck operations on Oct. 5, 2022, off the Virginia Coast. The Pentagon has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel, two U.S. officials said Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. The USS Gerald R. Ford and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a show of force that is meant to be ready to respond to anything, from possibly interdicting additional weapons from reaching Hamas and conducting surveillance. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
The Pentagon will be adding fighter jets to the region as well, he said.
US 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 normalising relations with Israel,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN earlier on Sunday.
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 normalisation 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 recognising Israel – something many members of Netanyahu’s nationalist religious coalition have long resisted.
The United States on Sunday said that Saudi-Israel normalisation efforts should continue despite the latest attack.
“We think it would be in both countries’ interests to pursue this possibility,” US Deputy National Security adviser Jon Finer told Fox News Sunday.
Blinken added that the United States has also taken note of reports of several US citizens killed and kidnapped in Israel, and officials were looking to verify the details and figures.
“We have reports that several Americans were killed. We’re working overtime to verify that,” Blinken said.
Blinken labelled the attack on Israel a “terrorist attack by a terrorist organisation”.
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 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.
AAP
