{"id":274546,"date":"2023-10-15T12:24:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T12:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=274546"},"modified":"2023-10-16T14:36:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T14:36:15","slug":"us-sending-second-carrier-strike-group-fighter-jets-to-region-as-israel-prepares-to-expand-gaza-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=274546","title":{"rendered":"Confirmed: US sending second carrier strike group, fighter jets to region as Israel prepares to expand Gaza operations"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Oren Liebermann, Natasha Bertrand and Brad Lendon \u2013 CNN.com Oct 15, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>The Pentagon has ordered a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and is sending Air Force fighter jets to the region as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/10\/14\/middleeast\/gaza-israel-evacuation-saturday-intl-hnk\/index.html\">Israel prepares to expand its Gaza operations<\/a>, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The US warships are not intended to join the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/10\/14\/middleeast\/gaza-evacuation-deadline-israel-intl\/index.html\">fighting in Gaza <\/a>or take part in Israel\u2019s operations, but the presence of two of the Navy\u2019s most powerful vessels is designed to send a message of deterrence to Iran and Iranian proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>The movements are \u201cpart of our effort to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas\u2019s attack on Israel,\u201d Austin said in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>The first carrier strike group, led by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/10\/04\/politics\/uss-gerald-ford-deploys\/index.html\">USS Gerald R. Ford<\/a>, arrived off the coast of Israel last week.<\/p>\n<p>Now the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group, which deployed from Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday, is headed to the eastern Mediterranean. The aircraft carrier was initially set to sail for the waters of US European Command.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear at this point how long the Ford will stay in the region once the Eisenhower carrier strike group arrives, one US defense official told CNN.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">US forces not there to aid Israel<\/h2>\n<p>The Biden administration made clear that the carrier, and its accompanying force, are not there to engage in combat activities on behalf of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no intention or plan to put American troops on the ground in Israel,\u201d said John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, on Thursday. Kirby underscored that the purpose of the increased military presence in the region is to deter others from entering the conflict if they perceive weakness on the part of Israel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2023\/10\/14\/middleeast\/us-aircraft-carrier-eisenhower-israel-gaza-intl-hnk-ml\/index.html\">Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Second US carrier group confirmed heading for the eastern Mediterranean. However, the Biden administration was keen to emphasize that they were not being sent to participate in the Gaza conflict. The two carrier groups, plus the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, were being deployed to deter any intervention from Iran or Hezbollah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":188401,"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":[58,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","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\/274546","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=274546"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274550,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274546\/revisions\/274550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/188401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}