US forces in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province near the border with Turkey<\/p>\n
US military personnel have been put on standby in Iraq to support a possible ground involvement in the Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip,\u00a0<\/strong>The Intercept<\/strong><\/em> found.<\/strong><\/p>\n According to a January US Air Force personnel memo obtained by\u00a0The Intercept<\/em>, American troops have been ordered to be on standby to be forward deployed in case of US military ground involvement in the Gaza war.<\/p>\n The memo did not indicate that such an involvement is forthcoming; however, it is the latest intimation of the Pentagon\u2019s preparations to support Israel’s genocidal war in the wake of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas\u2019s October 7 operation into the occupied territories, the report run on Tuesday said.<\/p>\n The document revealed that around 2,000 US military personnel were deployed to Iraq last year days after Hamas carried out the surprise operation against Israel, adding that since then, they have been put on prepare-to-deploy orders for potential support to Israel.<\/p>\n The latest development comes as US President Joe Biden\u2019s administration has stressed that its support for Israel in the Gaza war would not include boots on the ground.<\/p>\n In October, National Security Council spokesman\u00a0John Kirby said\u00a0\u201cThere are no plans or intentions to put US boots on the ground in combat in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut as we\u2019ve also said, we have significant national security interests in the region,\u201d\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n However, two days after Kirby\u2019s remarks, the White House inadvertently shared a picture of Biden in Israel posing alongside members of the secretive US special operations units, before quickly deleting it.<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/em> reported in early October that American special operations personnel were in Israel to help with efforts to free Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza.<\/p>\n The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime\u2019s atrocities against Palestinians.<\/p>\n Since the start of the aggression, Israel has killed more than 26,700\u00a0Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the Gaza Health Ministry.<\/p>\n The US, Israel\u2019s traditional ally, has backed Tel Aviv\u2019s\u00a0attacks on the Palestinian territory as an instance of \u201cself-defense,\u201d and has provided the regime with thousands of arms consignments since the onset of the war.<\/p>\n Since the war erupted, Washington has used its veto power to block the United Nations Security Council\u2019s resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.<\/p>\n