As many of you know, a second aircraft carrier strike force is headed to Israel, and there are credible reports that the White House is mulling taking action.
According to a detailed report from Axios, US officials are discussing using military force if Hezbollah gets involved as Israel prepares to invade Gaza.
From Axios:
The White House has been discussing the possibility of using military force if Hezbollah joins the war in Gaza and attacks Israel with its huge arsenal of rockets, three U.S. officials and one Israeli official with knowledge of the situation tell Axios.
So far, Iran-backed Hezbollah has fired rockets and missiles at Israeli positions at the border and in-kind Israeli airstrikes have destroyed Hezbollah outposts.
For the most part, the two sides are shooting rockets at each other, but there is a fear things will escalate because the IDF military is surrounding Gaza.
More from Axios:
Two U.S. officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Arab leaders in the region, with whom he’d met in recent days, that the U.S. “is not fooling around” by sending so many military assets to the region in support of Israel.
The scenario of using U.S. military force if Hezbollah were to join the war has come up in several White House meetings in recent days, the officials said. They added that any decision to use force would be made according to the scope of a Hezbollah attack and Israel’s ability to respond.
The two U.S. officials stressed the administration is doing all it can to keep Hezbollah out of the war — but also is preparing for the opposite scenario.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is evacuating embassy personnel in Lebanon after protests broke out following the hospital being blown up in Gaza.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, said: “The barbaric terrorists in Gaza are responsible for the attack on the Gaza hospital, not the IDF.
“The people who brutally murdered our children are murdering their own children too.”
