U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Israel this week to coordinate with Israeli leadership on its ongoing war with the Hamas terrorist group.
Mr. Blinken and a team of diplomats are expected to leave the United States on Oct. 11 and arrive in Israel on Oct. 12.
“Our support for Israel remains unwavering,” Mr. Blinken said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The urgent visit follows a brutal surprise attack in which more than 1,000 Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern Israel. The attackers murdered more than 1,000 men, women, and children, took hostages, engaged in rape and torture, and stole military equipment.
Israel has subsequently declared war on Hamas and is currently blockading the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Munitions, Navy to Israel
The United States is sending munitions and other critical equipment to Israel for use against Hamas.
The Biden administration has also ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to Israel in an effort to ward off any other parties from joining the conflict.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that Mr. Blinken’s visit was vital to ensuring that Jerusalem had the diplomatic, economic, and military support it needed to conduct its self-defense.
“First and foremost, the secretary has been engaged with our Israeli partners to ensure that Israel has everything that it needs to defend itself,” Mr. Miller said during an Oct. 10 press briefing.
“It will be a message of solidarity and support. He of course wants to hear from the leaders of Israel.”
Mr. Miller said that the first tranche of security assistance to Israel was on the way already. More is likely to follow.
When asked about the legality of Israel’s response, cutting off water and power to Gaza, Mr. Miller said that the United States understood Israel’s desire to defend itself against such “brutal terrorist attacks.”
“[Hamas] killed mothers and children and babies,” Mr. Miller said.
“Those are decisions for Israel to make.”
Mr. Miller noted that Hamas also killed at least 14 Americans, with 20 more unaccounted for.
He clarified, however, that the United States had no intention of joining Israel’s war and that the presence of an aircraft carrier in the region was intended to warn other powers away from exploiting the situation.
US Presence Intended to Deter
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed the United States is not planning to be directly involved in the war in a military capacity.“At this point that is not something that is under planning,” Mr. Sullivan said at a separate briefing.
“We did not move the carrier for Hamas. We moved the carrier to send a clear message of deterrence to other states or non-state actors who might seek to widen this war.”
He added that the United States was instead coordinating with Israel on matters of intelligence, planning, and coordination.
Likewise, he said the Biden administration is sending ammunition and interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome system. Some of the munitions, he said, had already been delivered because they were stored in Israel. Others would be flown in over the coming days.
Mr. Sullivan said that the “scenes of butchery” in Israel mirrored the “evil and barbarity” of ISIS.
Hamas’ brutality, he said, surprised both Israeli and American leadership, which appeared wholly unprepared for the attack.
“More than 1,000 men, women, and children were slaughtered in their homes, on their streets, and in desert fields. Among them, at least 14 Americans,” Mr. Sullivan said.
“We did not see anything that suggested an attack of this type was going to unfold, any more than the Israelis did.”
