US sends military ships, aircraft to Israel

WASHINGTON: Hours after the deadly Hamas attack inside Israel, US President Joe Biden promised ‘rock-solid and unwavering’ support to its closest ally in the Middle East.

Washington, which provides about $3bn in annual military aid to Israel, has also ordered the movement of military ships and aircraft closer to Israel as a show of support following Saturday’s attack by the Palestinian armed group.

Here’s the US military support for Israel:

The USS Gerald R Ford Carrier Strike Group will be moved to the Eastern Mediterranean alongside its accompanying warships. It is the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, alongside being one of the largest in the world. The carrier hosts a guided missile cruiser and four guided missile destroyers

The US is additionally sending USS Normandy, a guided missile cruiser armed with naval guns, and destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney and USS Roosevelt.

Defence Secretary Austin said that the US is augmenting Air Force F-35, the most advanced fighter jet in the world, along with the F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons in the region.

“I do not understand in strategic military terms why the US would send aircraft carriers – with some 5,000 sailors on it – and the most sophisticated aircraft in the world when Israel is more than capable of dealing with Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” said Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara. Bishara called the US decision to move the Ford Carrier a major escalation.

“We don’t know exactly what kind of munitions, but it is suspected that Israel has requested both interceptors and precision-guided munitions,” said Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Washington, DC. Hendren said that the interceptors are for Israel’s Iron Dome defence system. Those are the devices that strike the Hamas rockets and in some cases cause them to harmlessly explode in the air rather than land.

The Al Jazeera correspondent said that $2bn worth of US munitions have been pre-supplied in six different locations in Israel that can be used in case of emergencies.

“The announcement of the US that it will provide an aircraft carrier to support the occupation [Israel] is actual participation in the aggression against our people,” the group said in a statement on Sunday.

In a related development, Secretary of the US Army Christine Wormuth on Monday said additional funding from Congress would be needed for the Defense Department to provide munitions to Israel.

Biden administration officials have said they’re unclear about what Congress could pass in terms of support for Israel without a sitting Speaker of the House.

Also the Israeli defense attaché to the United States, Maj. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, is visiting the Pentagon.

He was spotted by CNN entering the Pentagon this morning around 9:15 a.m. ET. Zilberman met with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a defense official.

CNN has reached out to the Pentagon for comment on Zilberman’s meetings there, which come as the US has pledged to provide additional military support in the coming days amid Hamas’ ongoing attack on Israel.