New U.S. reinforcements have arrived in the Middle East, positioned to help defend Israel against a potential strike by Iran and Iranian-backed proxies.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the region, said a contingent of F-22 Raptors arrived Thursday. It posted photos of the fighter jets on social media.
The jets are "part of U.S. force posture changes in the region to mitigate the possibility of regional escalation by Iran or its proxies," the post noted.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh defended the move while briefing reporters in Washington.
"They can be a very invaluable defensive platform," she said. "They add a maneuverability, additional systems that allow the commander to have more versatile options."
The arrival of the U.S. warplanes — part of a series of maneuvers ordered by the Pentagon last week — comes amid fears of an expanded conflict in the region following Israel’s recent killing of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut and an attack in Tehran that killed Hamas’ political leader.
Both Iran and Hezbollah have vowed to respond, while Israel has pledged to eliminate newly appointed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
"We remain poised to respond," Singh said. "We're postured to come to the defense of Israel should we need to."
But she said the U.S. aims to prevent any further escalation.
"What we really want to see is tensions de-escalate," she said. "The need for this cease-fire deal to go forward so we can get hostages home - that’s really our focus, and that’s what we want to see moving forward."
In a joint statement on Thursday, leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar said, "It is time to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families. The time has come to conclude the cease-fire and hostages and detainees release deal."
"There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay. It is time to release the hostages, begin the cease-fire, and implement this agreement," they added.
They called on both sides to resume talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo.
Israel’s military said Thursday that its forces carried out airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in several areas of southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said that one of the strikes in the town of Doueir destroyed a house but that no casualties were reported.
The Israeli military also said Thursday that it conducted raids in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, where it has battled Hamas militants for months. Israeli fighter jets also destroyed a militant firing site in northern Gaza, the military said.
Aid group World Central Kitchen said Thursday that a Palestinian member of its warehouse team was killed in central Gaza. The group said it was seeking details about Nadi Sallout’s death, and that it believed he was off duty at the time.
Israel’s military said it was "unaware of any incident in which an employee of the organization was harmed during his work in recent days."
Israeli airstrikes in April hit three World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven people. Israel said it did not deliberately target the aid workers in the attack.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 terror attack that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed nearly 40,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory's Health Ministry, while Israel says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters it has killed.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
