The US has ordered the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the Middle East amid growing fears Iran will retaliate against Israel over the killing of a senior Hamas member.
It comes after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards began military drills on Friday in the western province of Kermanshah close to the border with Iraq.
The Pentagon confirmed the sub’s deployment – as well as speeding up the arrival of the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to the region – after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to his Israeli counterpart on Sunday.
“Secretary Austin reiterated the United States’ commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel and noted the strengthening of US military force posture and capabilities throughout the Middle East in light of escalating regional tensions,” a statement said.
Earlier, an Iranian armed forces official told the country’s official news agency IRNA that its drills were aimed at “enhancing combat readiness and vigilance”.
Iran has claimed Hamas’s top political leader Ismail Haniyeh was “assassinated” in its capital Tehran on Wednesday 31 July. Retaliation has been expected since.
Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility for Mr Haniyeh’s death.
Western countries have been urging Iran to show restraint – with fears a response could lead to a regional war.
However, sources have told US media the Israeli intelligence community believes Iran has decided to launch a direct attack and will do so within days.
Barak Ravid, a reporter with US media site Axios, said his two sources told him this marks a change in Israel’s assessment of Iran’s position.
Mr Ravid said one of the sources told him there has been an internal debate in Iran between the Revolutionary Guards and President Masoud Pezeshkian over a potential response to the death of Haniyeh.
Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran last month. Pic: Reuters
The Revolutionary Guards have been pushing for a severe response while Mr Pezeshkian believes this should be avoided, Mr Ravid claims.
The reports come as Israel’s war on Gaza is into its tenth month.
The war began when Hamas-led militants burst through Israel’s defences on 7 October, killing some 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducting around 250 people.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says the number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli response is approaching 40,000.
On Saturday, an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter left 80 people dead in the territory, according to Palestinian health officials.
An estimated 6,000 displaced people were sheltering in Tabeen school when it was struck by three missiles, according to a spokesperson for the Civil Defence agency, which operates under the Hamas-run government.
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Israel strikes school-turned shelter in Gaza
The Israeli military ordered the evacuation of Palestinians in southern Gaza early on Sunday.
The evacuation orders apply to areas in Khan Younis, including part of an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone from which the military said rockets had been fired.
The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war, often multiple times.
Hundreds of thousands have crammed into squalid tent camps with few public services or sought shelter in schools such as the one struck on Saturday. Palestinians say nowhere in the besieged territory feels safe.
Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of hiding among civilians and launching attacks from residential areas.