The Pentagon has announced the deployment of a second carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea as tensions escalate in the region.

The US will be sending USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group, which deployed from Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday, and Air Force fighter jets to the region “to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas’s attack on Israel,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in the statement.

America’s USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group also arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea earlier this week, after President Biden promised “rock-solid and unwavering” support to ‘Israel’ following the surprise Saturday attacks.

The US has deployed its forces to the region “in order to deter any actor seeking to escalate the situation or widen the war,” according to a statement released by the US Central Command on Tuesday.

Besides the USS Gerald R. Ford, which is the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier and one of the largest in the world, the US army also sent Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy, Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney, and USS Roosevelt.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced that the US is also augmenting Air Force F-35, the most advanced fighter jet in the world, along with the F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons in the region. 

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has announced that a new weapons aid package for Israel and Ukraine will be significantly higher than $2 billion.

Meanwhile, Palestinians have denounced the US move to provide military assistance to ‘Israel’ as an act of “aggression” against them. “The announcement of the US that it will provide an aircraft carrier to support the occupation [Israel] is actual participation in the aggression against our people,” the Palestinian Resistance group said in a statement released last week.

The Palestinian Resistance launched Operation Al-Aqsa on Saturday last week after repeated desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces and settlers and months of escalated violence that had resulted in the killings of several Palestinians, including minors.

The rocket attacks by Palestinians have been met with a full-scale military offensive by ‘Israel’ against Gaza, which has been under an illegal Israeli blockade for around 20 years. The Israeli aerial bombardment of Gaza has targeted residential buildings and ambulances, resulting in the killing of over 2,000 Palestinians, including children, women and elderly. 

The additional military aid to ‘Israel’ comes after the Pentagon warned the US Congress earlier this month that it is running low on funds to replenish US military stocks sent to Ukraine, after the Congress passed a short-term funding bill which dropped all US assistance for Ukraine to avert a looming government shutdown. 

‘Israel’ receives a staggering $3 billion in annual aid from the United States, funded mostly from American taxpayer money. In 2022, the US military aid to ‘Israel’ climbed to $4.8 billion, equivalent to $13.1 million per day. 

In fact, the US has granted more total aid to ‘Israel’ since World War II than to any other country. As of January 2023, the total US aid to ‘Israel’ from 1946-2023 in constant 2021 inflation-adjusted US dollars stood at around $260 billion, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.  

The enormous levels of US aid to ‘Israel,’ a state which regularly commits war crimes and breaks UN resolutions, is questionable as the US itself battles alarming levels of homelessness and unprecedented poverty rates at home.