Today's D Brief: US ups Mideast presence; Israel’s ‘limited raids’; prep; Intel chiefs: China stealing secrets; Aid package gathers support; And a bit more.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin ordered an increase in the U.S. military’s force posture in the Middle East, including the activation of a THAAD missile defense battery “as well as additional Patriot [missile defense] battalions to locations throughout the region,” the Defense Department said in a statement Saturday while the Israeli air force continued to pound alleged militant locations with hundreds of strikes across the Gaza strip and in southern Lebanon.
Austin also “placed an additional number of forces on prepare-to-deploy orders as part of prudent contingency planning, to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required,” according to the Pentagon.
“We don’t want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we’re ready for it,” State Secretary Antony Blinken said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The U.S. forces in the region “won’t hesitate to take the appropriate action” if threatened, Defense Secretary Austin told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.
New: Israeli airstrikes also hit Lebanon and Syria over the weekend and on Monday while U.S. officials privately feared a widening of the conflict throughout the region as Israel targeted Hezbollah militants, including those allegedly responsible for a missile attack in the Mount Dov area on Israel’s northern border on Monday.
Israeli officials are still planning a ground offensive into Gaza to kill Hamas militants and destroy logistic networks like long stretches of tunnels underground. U.S. officials are trying to delay that ground operation to allow more time for hostage negotiations (more than 220 are believed to held by Hamas) and the delivery of more aid to Palestinians trapped in Gaza, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Developing: A third aid convoy has entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday, including more than a dozen trucks, which add to the 34 that entered Gaza on Saturday and Sunday, according to the Times of Israel, citing an Egyptian Red Cross official. Israel has agreed to allow food, water, and medical supplies to enter southern Gaza; but they have disallowed any fuel shipment out of concerns Hamas could intercept it for repurposing.
Mapped: See where a growing number of clashes are being reported along Israel’s northern border thanks to a series of maps published Sunday by a half dozen members of the New York Times graphics team.
Israeli tank fire even hit an Egyptian military outpost near the border crossing at Kerem Shalom on Sunday, according to the Israeli military, writing on social media Sunday. The Egyptian military reported “minor injuries” among its soldiers at the outpost, according to the Washington Post.
Many Palestinian families are refusing to flee Gaza, as ordered by Israel’s military ahead of its anticipated ground operation. Said one 35-year-old software engineer to the Wall Street Journal, “I don’t care anymore; If I die, I die.”
Some Israeli ground troops are already conducting “limited” raids inside Gaza, Reuters reported Monday. Other Israeli troops reportedly raided a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing two Palestinians, residents told Reuters. The Israelis also hit a mosque in the West Bank because it said Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists were planning an attack there, according to the BBC.
Israel is also arming volunteers with M-4 and M-16 rifles to patrol the streets in support of police, officials said Sunday. More than 520 of these squads have allegedly been established since the Oct. 7 attacks began, according to Reuters.
European officials are planning to ask for a humanitarian pause in the fighting, and some kind of road map to a “two-state solution” for Israelis and Palestinians, Reuters reported separately on Monday from Brussels.
In positive developments, Hamas released two U.S. hostages on Friday, citing “humanitarian” reasons. Those two were Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17. “The women, dual American-Israeli citizens who live in Illinois, had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks,” the Times reported afterward.
Extra reading:
- “Israel-Hamas War Revives Interest in U.S. Production of Iron Dome Missiles,” via the Wall Street Journal reporting Monday in a sort of mini-explainer that doesn’t tread a lot of new ground;
- “McConnell supports packaging aid to Ukraine and Israel together,” Politico reported Sunday from Capitol Hill;
- And elsewhere in the Senate, South Carolina’s “Tim Scott, Who Supports Aid to Israel and Ukraine, Opposes a Package With Both,” the New York Times reported Sunday.
Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. If you’re not already subscribed, you can sign up here. On this day in 1972, the U.S. military ended its five-month long bombing campaign of North Vietnam codenamed Operation Linebacker. While some U.S. historians praised the operation for degrading North Vietnam's supply lines, the U.S. had to conduct another similar bombing campaign in December codenamed Linebacker II; and less than three years later, the U.S. military would entirely abandon its war in Vietnam.
The intelligence chiefs from five allied nations, including the U.S., insist China is stealing technology secrets from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and their allies. The intel leaders from the so-called “Five Eyes” went on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” Sunday evening to make their case to the public.
Two Chinese ships blocked and collided with Philippine vessels on Sunday. The incidents off Second Thomas Shoal damaged a Philippine coast guard ship and a navy-operated supply boat, officials said.
“The Philippine government views the latest aggression by China as a blatant violation of international law,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said at a press conference. “China has no legal right or authority to conduct law enforcement operations in our territorial waters and in our exclusive economic zone.”
AP: “Washington renewed a warning that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including “those of its coast guard — anywhere in the South China Sea.’” More, here.
Norway shadows Chinese container ship suspected in pipeline breach. Reuters: “Finnish investigators on Tuesday said they were looking into the Chinese vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, and a Russian-flagged ship, the Sevmorput, as well as other vessels, present in the area when a Baltic Sea pipeline was damaged on Oct. 8.”
Today in DC events: China power, unpacked. The Pentagon’s Assistant Secretary for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner is scheduled to discuss this year’s annual China Military Power report during an event hosted by the Atlantic Council on 15th Street NW in D.C. That gets underway at 3:30 p.m. ET. Details and livestream information, here.
Also from the Atlantic Council today: Several experts discussed “China’s standing in the Global South” in the wake of Beijing’s third Belt and Road Initiative Global Forum, which concluded Wednesday. You can catch the discussion in reruns on YouTube, here.