More than 1,700 are dead as Israel continues its retaliation over a surprise weekend attack by Hamas militants that has shaken the Middle East and ignited fears of a bigger regional escalation.
Israel’s military said Tuesday it had regained effective control over its south and the border with Gaza, four days after Hamas fighters stormed into the country and brought gun battles to its streets in the deadliest attack in decades.
The conflict threatens to delay or derail a country-by-country diplomatic push by the United States to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours.
Hamas’s attacks in Israel and much of the Arab world’s response to it raised questions about whether Palestinian ambitions for sovereignty could be put aside during the so-called normalization push.
The U.S. on Sunday afternoon began moving the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group into the eastern Mediterranean “to bolster regional deterrence efforts” as fears grow of a broader spread of violence.
Included in the U.S. strike group moving into the eastern Mediterranean are the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the guided missile cruiser USS Normandy and guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney and USS Roosevelt.
Last week it was conducting naval exercises with Italy in the Ionian Sea. It’s the United States’ newest and most advanced aircraft carrier and this is its first full deployment.
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters
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