US CENTCOM said last month that it has sent an additional batch of F-22 fighter jets in an effort to “mitigate the possibility of regional escalation by Iran or its proxies”.
The deployment comes a day after Pentagon officials said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin contacted his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, several times over the weekend.
In his calls, Austin “stressed the importance of finding a path to a diplomatic solution that will allow residents on both sides of the border to return to their homes as quickly and safely as possible, as well as reaching a Gaza cease-fire deal that will bring all the hostages home,” according to Pentagon officials.
Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has been ramping up its attacks in the past week as concerns are looming that the conflict could escalate into an all-out war.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, said that Israel “crossed a red line” with last week’s attacks in which hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah were remotely detonated in Lebanon and Syria, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands.
The Israeli military has also waged a massive bombardment on southern Lebanon on Monday, targeting 800 Hezbollah weapons sites and killing more than 350 people, in what was one of the deadliest days of fighting with Hezbollah since the 2006 war.
Israeli military officials had even warned civilians living near so-called Hezbollah sites in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its aerial campaign.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets across northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, on early Sunday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday that more than one million civilians were running to bomb shelters in Haifa.
The overnight rocket barrage came after Israel launched strikes in Lebanon, killing a top Hezbollah commander wanted for his role in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American soldiers.
This wave of attacks coincide with Israel’s most recent shift in its strategy vis-a-vis Lebanon, with Israeli leaders making a new war objective to ensure the safe return of thousands of its dispaced residents to the northern border with Lebanon.
Israeli foreign minister Israeli Katz said on Monday that Hezbollah’s leaders has taken the people of Lebanon hostage.
“We will not stop until the threat is removed from Israel’s citizens and the residents of the north return safely to their homes,” Katz said in a post on X.
The US has been struggling to reach a diplomatic solution and de-escalate tensions between Hezbollah and Israel.
“It has escalated this week, clearly, and that’s concerning,” Ryder told reporters.
“There’s the potential for these tit-for-tat operations between Israel and Hezbollah to escalate and to potentially spiral out of control into a wider regional war,” he added.
