The Pentagon has deployed the Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp with Marines to the eastern Mediterranean amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel along the Lebanese border, U.S. European Command confirmed on Friday.
Wasp and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, some 2,200 troops, entered the Mediterranean on Wednesday for a “scheduled deployment to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa area of operations,” the command said in a statement Thursday.
EUCOM added that the ships are intended to act as a deterrent in the region and prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from escalating into a broader regional conflict.
Asked about the ship’s movements, deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh on Friday stressed that the deployment was on schedule and that the US was not preparing to evacuate any US citizens from Lebanon for non-combat purposes.
“The objective is not to do a military-assisted withdrawal,” she told reporters, “to ensure regional stability and to deter aggression. This force has many other capabilities, one of which is that it can be deployed to support any kind of withdrawal should the need arise.”
The Wasp will join Oak Hill, already in the waterway, and New York, currently operating in the Atlantic, in the eastern Mediterranean. The three ships make up the Wasp amphibious ready group, Singh said.
The Amphibious Readiness Group and Marines train for a variety of missions, including the evacuation of U.S. citizens from war zones.
A gun battle has been going on across the Lebanese-Israeli border for nearly nine months, raising fears of it escalating into a full-scale conflict. The hostilities were sparked by a Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, which prompted Israel to launch a brutal air and ground operation in the Gaza Strip to defeat Hamas.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in an escalating clash and stepped up rhetoric in recent days. Earlier this month, the Israeli government Approved plans for a military attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the group, which the United States has designated a terrorist organisation, has released propaganda videos showing drone footage taken over Israeli military installations and communities.
The United States has been trying to find a diplomatic solution to the skirmish, but has so far been unsuccessful.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with Biden administration officials in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the Hezbollah threat, but Gallant said the rising tensions between the US and Israel are emboldening Israel’s allies.
