US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered some 2,000 US military personnel on heightened alert in order to respond to the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza if needed, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
The request for air defense, medical and intelligence capabilities comes as President Joe Biden is expected to visit Israel on Wednesday as Washington seeks to prevent Israel's war in Gaza from spiraling into a wider regional conflict.
No decision has been made to deploy the forces, and no orders have yet been handed down, US defense officials said on Tuesday.
“This directive increases DoD's ability to respond quickly to the evolving security environment in the Middle East,” the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, Sabrina Singh, told reporters on Tuesday.
