{"id":274269,"date":"2023-10-09T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=274269"},"modified":"2023-10-25T19:07:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T19:07:46","slug":"uss-gerald-r-ford-escorts-moving-closer-to-israel-in-response-to-hamas-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=274269","title":{"rendered":"USS Gerald R. Ford, Escorts Moving Closer to Israel in Response to Hamas Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heather Mongilio \u2013 USNI News Oct 8, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

USS Gerald R. Ford strike Group. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to move to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea as a result of Saturday\u2019s attacks in Israel.<\/p>\n

The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group has been in the Mediterranean Sea since June<\/a>\u00a0when it resumed the U.S.\u2019s continuous presence in response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

As of Oct. 2, the carrier strike group, which includes aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford<\/em> (CVN-78), Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy<\/em> (CG-60) and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner<\/em> (DDG-116), USS Ramage<\/em> (DDG-61), USS Carney<\/em> (DDG-64) and USS Roosevelt<\/em> (DDG-80), were operating in the Mediterranean near Italy, according to The USNI News\u2019 tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to the repositioning in the strike group, Austin also plans to increase Air Force squadrons of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, F-15, F-16 and A-10 tactical aircraft in the region, according to the secretary\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

The movements come after Austin spoke with President Joe Biden about the U.S. response to the Hamas attack on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201dStrengthening our joint force posture, in addition to the materiel support that we will rapidly provide to Israel, underscored the United States\u2019 ironclad support for the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli people,\u201d Austin said in the statement.<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, Hamas attacked Israel with forces moving in from the Gaza strip, surprising and overwhelming the Israel Defense Forces in southern Isreal, according to a CNN report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are hostages and prisoners of war that Hamas took. There are also deaths among IDF soldiers. We don\u2019t have an exact number yet \u2013 we are at war,\u201d IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hamas is the U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization that governs Gaza, a territory the State Department considers occupied by Israel. At least 600 Israelis and 400 Palestinians have been killed, according to Israeli paper Haaretz<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Later on Sunday, Austin spoke with\u00a0Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant \u201cto express support for the people of Israel and to receive updates on Israel\u2019s operation to restore security and safety from Hamas\u2019 terrorist attack,\u201d according to a Pentagon statement.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Austin] reaffirmed the unwavering support of the United States for Israel\u2019s right to defend itself and provided updates on U.S. actions in response\u2026 Austin underscored these steps were taken to strengthen the U.S. military posture in the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Carrier Strike Group sails to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of support for Israel. As plans are also underway to increase the number of U.S. warplanes deployed to the region. In an effort to deter any outside intervention in the conflict, most notably by Iran <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274269"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274273,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274269\/revisions\/274273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}