The U.S. is sending a group of warships to theeastern Mediterranean as Israel strikes back following a deadly holidayattack by Hamas militants that left hundreds dead.
By Alicia Diaz and Daniel Flatley, Bloomberg NewsA plume of smoke rises above buildings in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike, on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023.
Austin also said that the Pentagon would be sending additional aircraft to fighter squadrons in the region to enhance deterrent efforts. He said the U.S. will be “rapidly” providing the Israeli military with additional equipment and supplies, including munitions, which will “begin moving today and arriving in the coming days.”
The U.S. also is looking into reports that U.S. citizens were killed or taken hostage and into whether Iran may have been directly involved in the surprise attack, though there’s no immediate evidence of that, he said in interviews with multiple U.S. networks on Sunday.“In this moment, we don’t have anything that shows us that Iran was directly involved in this attack, in planning it or in carrying it out,” Blinken said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Blinken cited a memorandum of understanding signed under former President Barack Obama to provide Israel with $3.8 billion a year in U.S. military assistance, suggesting that immediate action by Congress — where the House’s Republican majority is embroiled in an election for the chamber’s new speaker — might not be needed.
“These are early days,” Blinken said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “Israel has to, first and foremost, ensure the security of its people in Israel, and then it’s determined to take steps to try to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.” U.S. Republican lawmakers expressed confidence that aid to Israel has bipartisan support in Congress, even as the party battles over its leadership in the House after last week’s vote that removed Kevin McCarthy as speaker.“Right now, the president has plenty of authorities under existing law to transfer a weapon or to provide mission planning or intelligence support to Israel,” Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican member of the Armed Services Committee, said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.
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