(Washington) The United States on Sunday began sending military aid to Israel with new munitions, and bringing its carrier strike group closer to the Mediterranean, marking rapid support for their historic ally surprised by attacks by Palestinian Hamas.
In a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, President Joe Biden announced that “additional aid for the Israeli armed forces is now on its way to Israel, with more to follow in the coming days,” according to a statement from the White House.
“Several American citizens” were killed in this offensive, a spokesperson for the American National Security Council said on Sunday.
The US president pledged “full support for his government and the Israeli people following a horrific and unprecedented assault by Hamas terrorists,” the executive added.
The first package of military aid “will begin shipping today and will arrive in the coming days,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
He said he had ordered the carrier strike group of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, the world’s largest warship, to head to the eastern Mediterranean. The carrier strike group was in the Ionian Sea, south of the Adriatic, in early October, according to the US Navy.
The American Air Force has also increased the deployment of its combat aircraft in the region, Lloyd Austin said.
PHOTO MANUEL BALCE CENETA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Joe Biden assured Israel of US “unwavering support” following Hamas attack.
All of this “strengthens the U.S. Department of Defense’s posture in the region,” he said, asserting that “the United States maintains its forces globally ready to strengthen the deterrence posture if necessary.”
This military aid amounts to “participation in the aggression against our people”, responded Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, on Sunday.
Americans hostage to Hamas
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, who increased the number of interviews on Sunday, shared information according to which Americans were among the victims of the attacks.
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog, for his part, indicated that American citizens were among the hundred people, civilians and soldiers, kidnapped in Israel by Hamas fighters from the Gaza Strip.
PHOTO ELIZABETH FRANTZ, REUTERS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
Contacts at the highest level between American and Israeli officials increased after a surprise offensive launched on Saturday from the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Despite the unanimity of political reactions for unconditional American support for Israel, the institutional situation is complicated for the executive, since one of the two chambers of Congress is paralyzed after the dismissal of its Republican leader last week.
Nearly a year before the presidential election, Joe Biden is under pressure from his Republican opposition, who accuse the Democrat of weakness in his defense of Israel and in his policy towards Iran.
Mr. Blinken recalled on Sunday that President Barack Obama signed an agreement with Israel in 2016 “to provide $3.8 billion in military aid per year.”
The entire Biden administration is engaged in diplomatic contacts “to build support for Israel and to ensure that every country uses all the means it has, all the influence it has, for a withdrawal of Hamas and ensure that the conflict does not break out in other places,” explained the head of American diplomacy.
Its deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Wood, called on all members of the UN Security Council, which was meeting urgently, to “strongly” condemn the Hamas offensive.
The death toll from the war between Hamas and Israel rose on Sunday to at least 400 dead in the Gaza Strip and more than 700 in Israel, according to the latest reports from the authorities, to which are added thousands of wounded.