Israel braces for weekend attack from Iran after Haniyeh assassination, US moves additional military assets to Middle East

The United States has decided to move a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and maintain an aircraft carrier in the region beefing up the American military presence to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and safeguard US troops. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has 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, AP reported. 

Nearly four months after Iran launched missiles towards Israel in an unprecedented move on April 13, the tension between the two countries are at aal-time high. Israel is bracing for another weekend attack from Tehran and its allies in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh earlier this week. 

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, New York Times reported, citing three Iranian officials, briefed on the order, including two members of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRG).  

Khamenei gave the order at an emergency meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on July 31 shortly after Iran announced that Haniyeh had been killed. 

Austin is ordering the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which is in the Gulf of Oman but scheduled to come home later this summer, the AP report said.  

Adding to the tension, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has also vowed to respond to the Israeli airstrike in Beirut earlier this week that killed commander Fuad Shukr. 

The Iranian attack in April was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven people, including a top commander. 

At that time, several Arab countries, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, supported Israel helping to shoot down Iranian and Houthi drones. They also allowed the US and Israel to use their airspace to intercept missiles. 

This time, the US feels there might be difficulty to receive the same level of cooperation after Haniyeh’s assassination, which has drawn sharp condemnation across the Middle East region, as per a report in Axios. 

However, an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson said its international partners had boosted their forces in the region. 

The latest flare-up in the region has led to several airlines, including Air India, to cancel their flights from Tel Aviv.