US Sends Amphibious Assault Ship To Show Support for Israel Amid Lebanon Tensions

The USS Wasp arrived in the eastern Mediterranean last week

The US has deployed an amphibious assault ship to the Middle East to demonstrate support for Israel amid soaring tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border.

The Pentagon announced that the USS Wasp arrived in the eastern Mediterranean Sea last week. The deployment comes amid fears of a full-blown Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon as Israeli forces and Hezbollah continue to trade fire across the border.

A US official told The Associated Press that the deployment was “about deterrence,” but the US show of force could embolden Israel. The US insists it’s working to prevent a war in Lebanon, but Middle East Eye recently reported that Washington conveyed to Lebanon it would ultimately support Israel if it went ahead with an invasion.

The Wasp is carrying a US Marine Corps Expeditionary Unit and is sailing along with the USS Oak Hill, a dock landing ship. US officials told NBC News last week that one purpose of the Wasp’s deployment is to stand by to evacuate Americans in the event that a full-scale war breaks out along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Another US official told AP that the deployment of the Wasp was comparable to the US sending warships to the region in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel and the start of the Israeli onslaught in Gaza.

The US said the purpose of building up its forces in the Middle East after October 7 was to prevent a regional war. But the brutal assault on Gaza sparked other conflicts across the region, including the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping, which led to a new US bombing campaign in Yemen.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.