US military leaders press Israel to shift from major combat

The top two US military leaders are travelling to Tel Aviv to advise the Israeli government on how to transition from major combat operations against Hamas in Gaza to a more limited campaign and prevent a wider regional war Their trip comes as Iranianbacked militants on Saturday launched a wave of attack drones against ships in the Red Sea and said they would continue until Israels aggression endsOne of the American warships assigned to the Ford carrier strike group the destroyer USS Carney successfully engaged 14 oneway attack drones launched from Houthicontrolled areas of Yemen US Central Command said in a statement Britain reported that a Royal Navy destroyer downed another drone that was targeting commercial shipsIt was the latest in a series of attacks threatening commercial and US Navy ships in the Red Sea that have escalated after Israel intensified its response to the Hamas strike against Israel on October 7 Israel is stinging from the deadliest attack ever on its homefront and has pledged that its offensive will not cease until Hamas is destroyedUS defence leaders are hoping to prevent the risk of wider regional conflict both through a sustained high level of US military presence and by engaging with the Israelis to get them to move beyond the massive bombardment campaign Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen CQ Brown who are heading to Israel served in leadership roles as US airpower and ground forces moved from major combat to lowerintensity counterterrorism operations in Iraq and Afghanistan But it is not clear how deeply their advice from lessons learned will resonate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus governmentTheir trip highlights the increased efforts by the Biden administration to convince Israel that it should scale back its offensive which has flattened much of Gazas northern region displaced millions and killed more than 18700 Palestinians according to the Health Ministry in the Hamasrun territory Israels push has been complicated by the dense urban population and Hamas network of tunnels and the militants are accused of using civilians as human shields The sustained intensity of Israels campaign has led President Joe Biden to warn that the US ally is losing international support because of its indiscriminate bombingUS officials have been telling Israel for several weeks that its window is closing for concluding major combat operations in Gaza without risking the loss of even more backing In a meeting on Thursday Bidens national security adviser Jake Sullivan urged Netanyahu to shift to more targeted operations by smaller military teams hunting specific highvalue targets rather than the sustained broad bombardment that has occurred so far In response Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said his country would continue major combat operations against Hamas for several more monthsThere are implications for the tens of thousands of US service members deployed in the region Austin on Friday extended the deployment once more of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford and a second warship in order to retain a twocarrier presence in the Mediterranean Sea The ships are seen as vital to deter Iran from widening the IsraelHamas war into a regional conflict The approximately 5000 sailors aboard the Ford were originally due home in early NovemberThere are 19 US warships in the region including seven in the eastern Mediterranean A dozen more stretched down the Red Sea across the Arabian Sea and up into the Persian Gulf The missile and drone attacks have led at least two major shipping companies HapagLloyd and Maersk to order their commercial vessels to temporarily pause transits through the straitThis is a worldwide problem that affects Israel too Gallant said the Houthis blocking shipping in the Red Sea We are ready to act We know what to do And we will find the right timing to act We are giving a chance in the maritime issue to the international system If we reach a situation where we are the final option we will know what to do he said about a possible military responseMohammed AbdelSalam the Houthis chief negotiator and spokesman wrote on X the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that the Houthis would keep targeting Israellinked vessels until the aggression stops the siege on Gaza is lifted and humanitarian aid continues to flow into the StripAustin is expected also to visit Bahrain and Qatar and further work toward establishing a new maritime mission to provide increased security for commercial ships sailing in the southern Red Sea Bahrain is the home of the US Navys Central Command headquarters and the international maritime task force charged with ensuring safe passage for vessels in the regionQatar has been vital in helping keep what has been a deadly localised war from boiling over into a regional conflict and negotiating hostage release Earlier in his Army career Austin oversaw the drawdown of forces in Iraq in 2011 He visited Israel days after the October 7 attack by Hamas and has spoken to Gallant his Israeli counterpart more than two dozen times since thenIn his meetings in Israel he is likely to continue discussions on how Israelis define different military campaign milestones to be able to assess when they will have sufficiently degraded Hamas to ensure their own security and shift from major combat operations a senior US defence official told reporters travelling with AustinThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever