US to hike military aid, send military ships and aircraft closer to Israel

The United States has said it will send multiple military ships and aircraft closer to Israel as a show of support following Saturday’s surprise attack by the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday said Washington will also increase military aid and provide munitions to Israel.

Hamas has labelled the US announcement as “aggression” against Palestinians.

“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 group said in a statement.

Israel battered Palestinians with air strikes in the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed on both sides.

Austin said the US believes Hamas’s latest attack could also be aimed at disrupting a potential normalising of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Austin said the security assistance to Israel will begin moving on Sunday and that the US will be adding fighter jets to the region as well.

The US has also ordered the moving of a carrier strike group closer to Israel, which includes the Ford carrier and ships that support it.

“I have directed the movement of the USS Gerald R Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean,” Austin said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that additional assistance for the Israeli army was on its way.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, held a call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, DC, said the US contributes $3bn a year in military aid to Israel.

“I have been told that among the munitions will be a support for [Israel’s] Iron Dome system… that is an intercept system for missiles and rockets being fired into Israel, which failed spectacularly on Saturday morning,” he said.