US deploys amphibious assault ship to Mediterranean amid Hezbollah conflict
Officials said the USS Wasp and the Marines onboard are not any indication that the United States is planning to move citizens out of Lebanon, but to act as a military deterrent as the conflict between Israel and Hamas wages on.
The United States took similar action after Iran-backed Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, sparking the latest spasm of violence and killing in an age-old conflict between the two sides, a battle that has largely evolved around land.
Not long after that attack, the United States deployed amphibious USS Bataan and the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford following Hamas' attack against Israel.
The Wasp will be joined in the eastern Mediterranean by the USS Oak Hill and the USS New York. Together, the three ships comprise the Wasp's Amphibious Ready Group.
Some 2,000 soldiers are trained as part of that group, and are capable of a wide variety of missions, including evacuating large numbers of American citizens from conflict zones.
"Each of our ships is capable of conducting amphibious operations, crisis response and limited contingency operations on their own, but there is no substitute for the type of combat power we bring to the fight when we constitute as an Amphibious Ready Group," said Capt. Nakia Cooper, commodore of Amphibious Squadron 4, aboard Wasp.
Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed group, have increased in recent weeks, prompting concerns that Israel could soon be engaged in a second war, and defensive rhetoric from the Israel Defense Forces is starting to emerge.
"We will not accept Hezbollah troops and military formations on the border with Israel," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Tuesday. "We will not accept threats to our northern communities."
"We are willing to do everything in our power to protect our people," he added. "We don't want to get into a war because it's not good for Israel."
Israel is already under increasing pressure to lessen the severity of its attacks on Gaza, where nearly 40,000 people have been killed as part of the Middle Eastern country's response to the Hamas terror attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said "the most intense" phase of that war was coming to an end, although he stopped short of agreeing to a cease-fire. He said he would work to free Israeli hostages and has stuck by his stated goal of destroying Hamas.
U.S. efforts to slow the pace and scale of the attack in Gaza have seemingly failed, and similar pressure has also fallen short as tensions ramp up with Hezbollah.
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