The House Foreign Affairs Committee is drawing up legislation to give the go-ahead for U.S. military force in the Middle East if Iranian-backed forces become involved in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the committee’s chair has said.
“I hope I never have to mark this bill up,” Texas Representative Michael McCaul told CNN on Monday, adding lawmakers were drafting the legislation “in the event that it’s necessary.”
“But we have a situation in the Middle East that’s growing day by day with intensity,” he said.
“And if Hezbollah gets involved, Iran has already threatened […] if IDF (Israel Defense Forces) goes into Gaza that they’re gonna come out.”
Since Palestinian group Hamas launched a coordinated land, sea and air attack from the Gaza Strip over into Israel’s borders on October 7, Israel has carried out an extensive air strike campaign on the territory. Hamas has in turn fired rockets and missiles across Israel, and is believed to still be holding Israeli hostages in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The U.S. quickly moved to support Israel as violence broke out, with U.S. President Joe Biden saying the U.S. “unequivocally condemned this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.”
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Washington would “offer all appropriate means of support” to Israel after the “horrific and ongoing attacks,” he said in the initial wake of the Hamas attacks.
The U.S. has moved to fend off the possibility of a new front opening in the north of Israel, along its border with Lebanon. But there is still deep concern over Iran’s role in supporting both Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel, and threats of escalation from Tehran over Israel’s approaching ground offensive in Gaza.
“We can’t rule out that Iran would choose to get directly engaged some way,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS on Sunday. “We have to prepare for every possible contingency. That’s exactly what the president has done,” he said.
Around 2,000 U.S. soldiers have been told to get ready for possible short-notice deployment to the Middle East to support Israel, defense officials told The Wall Street Journal. The troops will not have a combat role, and would be helping Israel with advice or medical support, the outlet reported. The soldiers have not yet been sent to any country, but would likely head for a nearby nation around Israel.
The U.S. has provided military aid to Israel, including replenishing Israel’s infamous Iron Dome air defense system, and offered to help secure the release of Hamas-held Israeli hostages.
The U.S. has relocated its USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean, with a second—the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower—ordered to the Mediterranean for “long-scheduled” deployment, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said last week. But the resources will be in the region and available “if needed,” Kirby told the media.
“Altogether this gives the U.S. a significant amount of firepower in the region from which to draw on if needed,” independent military analyst Patrick Fox previously told Newsweek.
Biden is expected to visit Israel later this week, and the commander of the U.S. Central Command, General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday. “I’m here to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and am particularly focused on avoiding other parties expanding the conflict,” Kurilla said.
But as Israel has gathered ground forces around Gaza, to the west of southern Israel, concerns have brewed over the expansion of the conflict further across the Middle East. Although Lebanon-based Hezbollah was not part of Hamas’ push into Israel earlier this month, it has made its presence felt to the north of Israel’s borders and acted in “solidarity” with Hamas.
Israeli and Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces have been exchanging fire across Israel’s northern border, marking the most lethal escalation along the boundary since Hezbollah and Israel’s 2006 war. Late last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there was no evidence Hezbollah was amassing forces along the border.
Israel’s military said on Tuesday that it had struck several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after Hezbollah fired on Israel on Monday.
Tehran has said it wasn’t a participant of the Hamas attacks, but has thrown its weight behind anti-Israeli forces. With a looming Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, and northern Gaza now fast emptying of residents, Iran has said that “leaders of the resistance will not allow the Zionist regime to take any action in Gaza.”
If Israel decides to send ground forces into Hamas-controlled Gaza, “the resistance leaders will turn it into a graveyard of the occupation soldiers,” Tehran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
“In the coming hours, we can expect a pre-emptive action by the resistance front,” he then said on Monday in comments on Iranian state television. Separately on Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, said Tehran “considers that the United States is already militarily involved in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.”