President Joe Biden is expected to visit Israel on Wednesday following an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“President Biden will underscore our crystal-clear message to any actor, state or non-state, trying to take advantage of this crisis to attack Israel. Don’t. To that end, he’s deployed two aircraft carrier groups and other military assets to the region,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who also traveled to Israel, said.
According to the Pentagon, about 2,000 U.S. troops could be deployed to assist Israel in intelligence and medical roles “should Israel launch a ground incursion into Gaza.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned of a preemptive attack if Israel carries out ground invasion of Gaza, adding that time is running out.
“If the limited and extremely tight windows of opportunity available to the United Nations and political actors are not used over the coming hours, opening new fronts against the Zionist regime is inevitable,” he stated.
As the New York Times reported, Israel’s retaliation would hearken back to 2006, when Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah — the Iranian-backed militia that controls southern Lebanon — said he regretted kidnapping two Israeli soldiers because of Israel’s subsequent response.
“If I had known, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not,” Nasrallah said later that year.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas also sparked fears of a wider Middle Eastern war, such as between Hezbollah and Israel, along Israel’s northern border, and possibility between Israel and Iran. So far, the Biden administration has sent warships on the eastern Mediterranean Sea as a warning to Hezbollah and Iran should a wider event ensue.
“That’s a very significant show of force,” Natan Sachs, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution, said.
Special Ops Sgt.-Major Doron Keida, who’s on the Gaza border in the south, told CBN News that the Israel Defense Force is ready to fight.
“What I can tell you is that what this (brutality) has done, it has united us – all of us, across the board, whatever our political agendas were before this broke out, coming together – the Air Force, the Ground Forces, the Navy. Everybody is coming, and we’re ready to do our part to defend our country and stand shoulder to shoulder,” Keidar asserted.
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Kent Nishimura / Stringer
Video Courtesy: /AP via YouTube
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
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