On Saturday, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin stated that the United States is sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas’s attack.
The USS Eisenhower and her associated warships will join another carrier group already in the region in the aftermath of Israel’s raid a week ago and its ongoing reaction.
In a statement, Lloyd Austin stated, “The deployment demonstrates Washington’s ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and our resolve to deter any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war”.
A Hamas raid that saw fighters breach the strongly fortified border between the Gaza Strip and Israel and gun down, stab, and burn to death around 1,300 Palestinians provoked a week of lethal Israeli salvos.
According to health officials in Gaza, Israel’s reaction has killed almost 2,200 Palestinians. On the Israeli side, the majority of them were civilians.
The US has transferred weapons to Israel and has advised other countries not to escalate the crisis.
President Joe Biden reiterated US support for measures to protect civilians in Gaza during a phone discussion with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the same day as the announcement of the second carrier deployment.
“President Biden affirmed his support for all efforts to protect civilians”, the White House said in a statement about the call, which didn’t address the enclave directly.
For the first time since the outbreak of hostilities, Biden talked with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas on Saturday, criticizing Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel.
“Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination”, Biden told Abbas, according to a White House statement about their talk.
Also read: Israeli Military Saves 200 People In The Midst Of War
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