The Pentagon has announced that the U.S. will move a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and maintain an aircraft carrier in the region. The announcement was made Friday, a day after United States President Joe Biden said he’s “very concerned” that the violence in the Middle East could escalate, adding that the killing of a top Hamas leader in Iran has “not helped” efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Biden said he’d had a “very direct” conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. “We have the basis for a cease-fire. He should move on it and they should move on it now.”
Netanyahu has said his country was determined to win nothing less than “total victory” against Hamas. He also said that Israel hoped for a cease-fire soon and was working for one.
The assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday and senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut on Tuesday risks escalating the fighting into an all-out regional war, with Iran also threatening to respond after the attack on its territory. Israel has vowed to kill Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among the growing voices internationally calling for a cease-fire in recent days, saying that it was the only way to begin to break the cycle of violence and suffering.
Here’s the latest:
The US will boost military presence in Mideast, sending fighter jet squadron and keeping carrier there
The United States Defense Department will move a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and maintain an aircraft carrier in the region, the Pentagon said Friday, as President Joe Biden made good on his promise to beef up the American military presence to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and safeguard U.S. troops.
In a statement, the department said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also ordered additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to the European and Middle East regions and is taking steps to send more land-based ballistic missile defense weapons there.
The shifts come as U.S. leaders worry about escalating violence in the Middle East in response to recent attacks by Israel on Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, which triggered threats of retaliation.
US Defense Secretary to direct forces to provide additional support to Israel and increase American troop protection in region
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “will be directing multiple” force movements to provide additional support to Israel and increase protection for American troops in the region, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Friday. She said final decisions have not yet been made.
Singh said it could involve deploying additional military units “with additional capabilities that … would need to be operated by additional people.” She declined to provide details, but an array of defensive measures, from additional ships and fighter aircraft units to added air defense systems, would involve more troops.
She said she’s not aware of any United States military units being ordered to prepare to deploy as yet.
The U.S. continues to have a number of warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including two Navy destroyers, the USS Roosevelt and the USS Bulkeley, as well as the USS Wasp and the USS New York.
The Wasp and the New York are part of the amphibious ready group and carry a Marine expeditionary unit that could be used if any evacuation of U.S. personnel is required.
In addition, a U.S. official said that two U.S Navy destroyers that are currently in the Middle East will be heading north up the Red Sea toward the Mediterranean Sea. At least one of those could linger in the Mediterranean if needed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements.
Palestinians in Gaza rely on makeshift charity kitchens for survival as they struggle to access to food and water
DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinians in Gaza are still struggling to have proper access to food and clean water amid Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, which has restricted the entry of much needed aid.
Families heavily rely on makeshift charity kitchens for survival, lining up for several hours in excruciating heat to get their main meal of the day of rice, with chicken provided once a week.
Abu Hamzah, who runs a small charity kitchen set up in Deir al-Balah, told the Associated Press that between 8,000 and 10,000 displaced people benefit from his charity kitchen.
Footage by the Associated Press shows the inside of a makeshift shelter where Abu Hamzah helps give meals.
“Life is hard. There is no income. We come to the charity kitchen and stand 4 to 5 hours waiting our turn during the day every day in the sun,” Um Yehia Shaheen, a woman displaced with seven family members from Gaza City, told the AP.
Water access is also strained after water wells across the enclave were destroyed in Israeli airstrikes. Palestinians in Deir al-Balah line up for hours to fill up their bottles or jerry cans from water barrels.
“There is no life here. We’re not living. Donkeys in Gaza used to live a better life than the one we are living now,” Mohamed Hanounah, a man displaced from Gaza City, told AP.
Israeli police detain top imam at Al-Aqsa mosque over Haniyeh comments
JERUSALEM — Israeli police have detained the top imam at the revered Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City for comments he made during a Friday sermon mourning the death of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Haniyeh was assassinated earlier in the week in Tehran in an attack that many have pinned on Israel. On Friday, Israeli police said they brought Sheikh Ekrima Sabri in for questioning after his address during midday prayers mentioned Haniyeh by name, mourning his death and asking “God Almighty to have mercy on him and to grant him a place in his spacious gardens.”
The police said they are now investigating Sabri for incitement. They said the state has previously filed an indictment against Sabri on the same charge, one of 140 indictments for incitement in the Jerusalem area — including several other imams. Throughout the war, Israel has cracked down on Palestinian free speech, rights groups say, arresting them for speech deemed by Israeli authorities to be incendiary.
Lebanese village mourns Syrian family killed in Israeli strike
BEIRUT — Dozens of people gathered Friday in the village of Chamaa in southern Lebanon to mourn a Syrian refugee family killed in an Israeli strike that hit their house the day before.
The Lebanese health ministry said five Lebanese citizens were also injured in the strike, which killed a Syrian widow and her three sons — two children and one young adult. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Haidar Haidar, the oldest son’s employer in a factory for construction materials, said the family was originally from Idlib in northern Syria.
“They are people who escaped war in Syria and they met their fate here,” he said.
Since October, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged strikes near-daily over the Lebanon-Israel border, killing more than 500 people in Lebanon — including about 100 civilians — and 22 soldiers and 25 civilians in Israel. They include 12 children and teenagers killed by a missile that hit a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Saturday.
Israel blamed Hezbollah for the strike; Hezbollah denied responsibility. Days later, Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in a rare strike in Beirut for which Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate, triggering fears that the conflict could spiral out of control.
French minister seeks greater security for Jewish communities as tensions escalate
PARIS — France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Friday called for increased security measures to protect Jewish communities across the country amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. “The risk of action is real,” Darmanin said in a note to national and local law enforcement agencies.
He requested greater security around places frequented by Jewish people in France, particularly places of worship and other gatherings for religious services.
Darmanin specifically mentioned the “many Israeli citizens” in France at the time of the Paris Olympics in need of protection as tensions flare up following the assassination of top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Tehran and in Beirut.
Israel protests after Turkey lowers embassy flag for Haniyeh
JERUSALEM — Israel has summoned Turkey’s deputy ambassador for a “severe reprimand” after the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv lowered its flag to half-staff in a sign of mourning for Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Israeli foreign minister announced.
Israel Katz said on X that his country would not tolerate expressions of mourning for a “murderer like Ismail Haniyeh, who led Hamas in committing the atrocities on October 7th and prayed with his associates, wishing success to the murderers.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a national day of mourning for Friday, mandating that flags around the country and at overseas diplomatic missions be lowered to half-staff in honor of Haniyeh. Funeral prayers were being held at mosques around country as well as Istanbul’s famed Haghia Sophia.
Katz said: “If the embassy representatives wish to mourn, they should go to Turkey and mourn alongside their master, Erdogan, who embraces the terrorist organization Hamas and supports its acts of murder and terror.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli responded to Katz on X, saying Israel would not be able to achieve peace “by killing negotiators and threatening diplomats.”
Turkey does not view Hamas as a terrorist organization and has describes it as a “liberation movement.”
Israel investigates imam at Al-Aqsa Mosque over Haniyeh comments
JERUSALEM — Israeli police are investigating comments made Friday by the imam at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem mourning top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during prayers Friday.
Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran earlier this week in an attack that Iran pinned on Israel. On Friday, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the former mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, said, “the people of Jerusalem and the environs of Jerusalem from the pulpit of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque mourn the martyr Ismail Haniyeh. We ask God Almighty to have mercy on him and to grant him a place in His spacious gardens.” Sabri also led a funeral prayer in absentia for Haniyeh.
Following the sermon, Israeli police said that they were probing whether the statement constituted incitement. They pledged to “act based on the findings.” Since the start of the war, Palestinians have been arrested, fired by Israeli employers and expelled from Israeli schools for online speech deemed incendiary by Israeli authorities, rights groups say.
Roughly 30,000 attended prayers Friday, according to the Waqf, the Jordanian-based Muslim religious body that takes care of the Al-Aqsa site. Police banned hundreds of young men from entering the sensitive compound ahead of prayers, a common practice since Oct. 7.
Cyprus prepares to help people evacuate from the Middle East in case the Israel-Hamas war expands
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus’ foreign minister says authorities are in touch with the diplomatic missions of nations that may opt to evacuate their citizens through the east Mediterranean island nation if the Israeli-Hamas war expands to engulf neighboring countries.
Minister Constantinos Kombos said Friday agencies have been mobilized as part of the country’s long-standing evacuation action plan called ESTIA. He said there’s a “serious danger” of conflict expanding further, which would affect the entire region.
Kombos said Cyprus’ role is to “operate as a bridge of safety” in the region in the event of mass evacuations of third-country citizens from the Middle East.
In 2023, Cyprus acted as a waystation for third-country evacuees from Sudan and Israel after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The island nation also helped in the evacuation of tens of thousands of third-country nationals during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
An Australian inquiry blames Israeli military failings for a fatal drone attack on a Gaza aid convoy
MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian investigation has found the Israeli military’s attack on an aid convoy in Gaza that killed seven people resulted from serious failures of defense procedures, mistaken identification, and bad decisions.
Australian Zomi Frankcom was among those killed in the April 1 Israeli drone strikes on three World Central Kitchen vehicles. The report released Friday says the convoy’s armed security guards were likely mistaken for Hamas operatives. Two Israeli officers were dismissed and three reprimanded, but Frankcom’s family says more should be done.
Former Australian Defense Force Chief Mark Binskin was appointed as Australia’s special adviser on the matter. He says Israel should apologize to the families.
A family representative issued a statement Friday welcoming Binskin’s report as an “important first step.”
“We hope it will be followed by further investigations in Israel regarding those responsible for this tragic event, followed by appropriate action,” the family statement said.
Pakistan’s prime minister calls for a day of mourning for Hamas leader Haniyeh
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is appealing to his countrymen to observe a day of mourning and hold special funeral prayers in absentia for the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
Such prayers are held when the body of any person is from the country.
Sharif in his televised remarks Friday said he will also attend a special funeral service for Haniyeh at a mosque at his sprawling office in the capital, Islamabad.
He denounced the killing of the Hamas leader in his brief remarks shortly before Pakistan’s parliament approved a resolution to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. The resolution also called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and denounced the killing of the Hamas leader.
US President Biden is ‘very concerned’ that violence in the Mideast could escalate
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Maryland — President Joe Biden said late Thursday he’s “very concerned” that the violence in the Middle East could escalate, adding that the killing of a top Hamas leader in Iran has “not helped” efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Gaza.
Biden said he’d had a “very direct” conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day, repeating “very direct” for emphasis.
He added: “We have the basis for a cease-fire. He should move on it and they should move on it now.”
Biden spoke on the tarmac of an air base outside Washington after welcoming back to the United States three Americans who were freed in a prisoner swap earlier in the day.