WarSclerotic

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A sudden White House announcement that a US aircraft carrier and a bomber wing would be deployed in the Persian Gulf to counter Iran comes just days ahead of the anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw America from Tehran’s nuclear deal.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is said to be planning a speech Wednesday on the anniversary to discuss the next steps Tehran will take in confronting the US. Officials in the Islamic Republic previously warned that Iran might increase its uranium enrichment, potentially pulling away from a deal it has sought to salvage for months.

The military has almost always had an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf as part of its sprawling military presence in the strategic region, but had begun to scale back its presence as the air campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria wound down.

Sunday night’s statement from national security adviser John Bolton said the USS Abraham Lincoln, other ships in the carrier’s strike group and a bomber wing would deploy to the Mideast. Bolton blamed “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings,” without elaborating.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during the inauguration ceremony of four projects at the South Pars gas field on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, in Asaluyeh, Iran, March 17, 2019. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

“The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces,” Bolton said.

In Iran, the semi-official ISNA news agency on Monday quoted an anonymous official as saying that Rouhani planned a broadcast address Wednesday and may discuss the “counteractions” Tehran will take over America’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal. It said Iranian officials have informed their European counterparts — with whom Iran has been trying to salvage the agreement — of the planned speech.

“Partial and total reduction of some of Iran’s commitments and resumption of some nuclear activities which were ceased following (the deal) are the first step,” ISNA said. Iranian state television and the semi-official Fars news agency similarly suggested an Iranian response loomed.

A spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Keivan Khosravi, also dismissed Bolton’s comments as “psychological warfare.”

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog says Iran has continued to comply with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw it limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But American sanctions have wreaked havoc on Iran’s already-anemic economy, while promised help from European partners in the deal haven’t alleviated the pain.

US National Security Advisor John Bolton unveils the Trump Administration’s Africa Strategy at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, December 13, 2018. (Cliff Owen/AP)

The US last week stopped issuing waivers for countries importing Iranian crude oil, a crucial source of cash for Iran’s government.

It’s unclear what specific threat American officials perceive coming from Iran. A US official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said American troops at land and sea could be targeted.

The USS Abraham Lincoln had been in the Mediterranean Sea conducting operations alongside the USS John C. Stennis, another aircraft carrier that has twice been in the Persian Gulf in recent months.

However, American military officials have stopped the near-continuous presence of aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, a pattern set following the 1991 Gulf War. American air bases spanning the region can scramble fighter jets and drones, lessening the necessity of an aircraft carrier as U.S. officials also worry about China and Russia.

Already in the Persian Gulf is a group of US Navy warships led by the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship carrying troops from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. The Kearsarge also carries AV-8B Harrier fighter jets, MH-60 helicopters and MV-22 Osprey airplanes.

The USS Kearsarge in the Gulf of Aqaba, June 4, 2013. (Jose E. Ponce/US Navy, released by C5F PAO)

Across the wider 5th Fleet, there were 17 warships deployed, according to the most-recent count by the US Naval Institute, which tracks deployments around the world.

The Bahrain-based 5th Fleet declined to comment on the White House announcement when reached by the AP on Monday.

It also remains unclear what bomber wing would be deployed to the region. Typically, the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, home to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command, hosts such bomber deployments.

In late March, the Air Force acknowledged a rare gap in bomber cover in the Mideast after a squadron of B-1 Lancers left al-Udeid to return to Texas. B-52 bombers also had been deployed to the area to keep up attacks on the Islamic State group, the first time the aging aircraft had deployed to the region in 25 years.

Officials at al-Udeid, which also hosts the F-35 fighter jet, declined to answer questions from the AP.

Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade, marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, in the capital Tehran, on September 22, 2018. (AFP/STR)

The Trump administration, which abruptly announced in December that it was pulling out of Syria, still maintains 2,000 US troops in the northern part of the war-torn country. Officials suggest they serve as a check on Iranian ambitions and help ensure that Islamic State fighters do not regroup. No significant US forces have so far withdrawn from Syria.

Trump has also said he has no plans to withdraw the 5,200 troops stationed in Iraq as part of a security agreement to advise, assist and support the country’s troops in the fight against IS. Earlier this year, Trump angered Iraqi politicians and Iranian-backed factions by saying troops should stay there to keep an eye on neighboring Iran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel had reinstated its controversial policy of targeted killings and warned that the “rules of the game” vis-a-vis the Gaza Strip have changed.

The prime minister was briefed by army officials in southern Israel and visited wounded soldiers at a Beersheba hospital on Monday, hours after a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian terror groups went into effect, ending two days of intense fighting that saw more than 600 rockets fired at Israel and four Israeli civilians killed.

In response to the onslaught, the Israeli military conducted over 300 strikes from the air and land, including a rare assassination of a terrorist operative, who the IDF said funneled money from Iran to terror groups in the Strip.

“In the past two days, we’ve renewed the policy of assassinating senior terrorists, we’ve killed dozens of Hamas and [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad terrorists and we toppled terror towers,”said Netanyahu, who is also defense minister.

Palestinian emergency personnel try to put out the fire on a car belonging to Hamas terror group senior member Hamed Hamdan al-Khodari, after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on May 5, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP)

He was referring to the killing of Hamas field commander Hamed al-Khodari in a targeted strike, a practice the army has largely forgone in recent years.

According to the IDF, al-Khodari owned a number of money exchanges in the Gaza Strip and used them to bring large amounts of Iranian cash into the coastal enclave for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terror groups.

At least 11 of the 29 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since Friday were members of terror groups, according to Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Eight of the 11 members of terror groups belonged to the Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s military wing.

Relatives carry the body of a Palestinian, who was killed in Israeli strikes the previous day, during a funeral ceremony, in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza Strip on May 6 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

“We changed the rules of the game and Hamas knows this well,” Netanyahu said. “At the same time, it’s obvious that this is not the end of the campaign, and therefore I have instructed [the military] to prepare for its continuation and have directed to keep the artillery and armored corps around the Gaza Strip.”

Netanyahu was criticized earlier on Monday by opposition lawmakers and a lone Likud MK for reportedly agreeing to the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza.

A car bursts into flames after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on May 5, 2019. (Flash90)

“Over the past two days, we have hit Hamas and Islamic Jihad with great force, attacking over 350 targets and terrorist leaders and activists, and destroying terrorist infrastructure,” Netanyahu said in a statement earlier on Monday.

“The campaign is not over and requires patience and judgment. We are preparing to continue,” the prime minister added. “The goal was and remains to ensure the peace and security of the residents of the south. I send condolences to the families and wish a speedy recovery for the wounded.”

A spokesperson for Hamas also said that although the recent flareup in violence had come to an end, the wider conflict would continue.

“The resistance managed to deter the IDF,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, according to the Kan public broadcaster, referring to the Gaza terror groups. “Our message is that this round is over, but the conflict will not end until we regain our rights.”

Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip fire rockets toward Israel on May 5, 2019. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

The ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza terror groups went into effect at 4:30 a.m. Monday, according to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups.

The Israeli government refused to confirm the reported truce, apparently so as to avoid publicly acknowledging its negotiations with terrorist groups.

However, the military announced that, as of 7 a.m., it was lifting all security restrictions that had been in place in the south during the fighting, and that schools would be allowed to open, indicating that a ceasefire had indeed been reached.

The Israeli military on Monday warned that war with Gaza could be back on the horizon in days or weeks if Israel did not work to ease living conditions in the beleaguered enclave.

Saturday and Sunday saw two days of intense fighting that saw nearly 700 rockets fired at Israel and four Israeli civilians killed.

In response to the onslaught, the Israel Defense Forces conducted over 300 strikes from the air and land, including a rare assassination of a terrorist operative whom the IDF said funneled money from Iran to terror groups in the Strip.

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The fighting was some of the heaviest seen since 2014’s 50-day war with Gaza, but tapered off late Sunday and early Monday, as Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad said a ceasefire had been reached.

In a press briefing, the military said the country needed to make changes to its strategic policy to improve living conditions in the Gaza Strip if it did not want another flareup of violence in coming weeks.

Palestinians check damage to a multi-story building following Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza City, May 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Now that there is some degree of calm, the IDF said it believes that the Israeli government should strike while the iron is hot and work towards a longer term ceasefire agreement. In the meantime, however, the military is keeping the air force, including air defense units, on high alert in case of another breakout of violence.

The violent outburst on Saturday and Sunday was the latest in a series of escalating clashes between Israel and Gaza-based terrorists to bring the sides to the brink of war, as Hamas has pushed for a blockade on the Strip maintained by Israel and Egypt to be lifted and other restrictions eased.

While the army has reportedly pushed for measures meant to make the lives of Palestinians in the Strip more bearable, the political leadership has been more hesitant, fearing being portrayed as giving in to terror, especially with Hamas holding Israeli captives and the remains of soldiers.

The military said in its briefing that throughout the fighting, it had been ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to retaliate against the rocket fire forcefully, but with significant restraint as to avoid all-out war. Netanyahu also serves as defense minister.

The IDF contradicted claims by members of the security cabinet that the Memorial and Independence Days coming up this week and the Eurovision Song Contest planned for next week were not considerations in its decision-making.

The army said it had been instructed to try to bring the fighting to an end before these events, if not sooner, and with as many achievements as possible. Memorial Day begins Tuesday night, with Independence Day the next night. The Eurovision song contest is scheduled to begin on May 14.

Reception area at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. (Andres Putting, EBU)

The military said the need to wrap up the fighting quickly prevented it from conducting strikes on Hamas’s longer range rockets.

In response, a security cabinet minister told Channel 12 news, “We were shocked by the army’s briefings. They are not in line with what the chief of staff presented to the cabinet. This is an attempt by the army to push blame onto the cabinet.”

Other cabinet officials told the outlet that there were other circumstances beyond the upcoming holidays and events that justified the ceasefire. The officials hinted that the reasoning was similar to the case in November when a truce was accepted ahead of the IDF’s Operation Northern Shield the following month, which found and destroyed attack tunnels dug by the Hezbollah terror group from Lebanon into northern Israel.

Military Intelligence believes that, for now, terror groups in the Strip will not carry out attacks against Israel in the lead-up to the Eurovision Song Contest, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of visitors.

But the army said that, while extant, this deterrence is shaky, especially as it relates to the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, whom the IDF primarily blames for this weekend’s battle.

Before this latest flareup, the military said it had identified plans by the terror group to carry out an attack on the international music competition.

Israeli air defense system Iron Dome takes out rockets fired from Gaza near Sderot, May 4, 2019. (AP/Ariel Schalit)

This weekend’s fighting began on Friday evening after Islamic Jihad, the second largest terror group in the Strip, conducted a sniper attack on an Israeli officer and soldier serving along the Gaza border, injuring them. In response, the IDF shelled a nearby manned Hamas observation post, killing several members of the Gaza-ruling terrorist group.

The following morning, Hamas and Islamic Jihad began firing rockets and mortar shells at south and central Israel, continuing until the predawn hours of Monday morning when the terror groups said Egypt had brokered a ceasefire. Over the course of those 41 hours, more than 690 projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad attempted to overwhelm the Iron Dome missile defense system by repeatedly firing large fusillades at a specific location. In one case, over the course of one hour, at least 117 rockets were fired at the city of Ashdod.

A Hamas official boasted Monday that the terror group had managed to beat Iron Dome with the strategy.

Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman. (Courtesy)

In fact, only one of the projectiles aimed at Ashdod in the volley made it past Israel’s air defense. That rocket killed Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman, 21, a dual American-Israeli citizen, as he was running for shelter.

Three other Israelis were killed in attacks from the Strip on Sunday: Moshe Agadi, 58; Zaid al-Hamamdeh, 47; and Moshe Feder, 68.

Hamas also attempted to use a new style of rocket, one with a short range and a heavy warhead, packed with dozens to hundreds of kilograms of explosives. The terror group believed these would get past Israel’s air defenses, as during the 2014 Gaza war, the Iron Dome struggled to intercept short-range mortar shells. However, the military said technological upgrades and other improvements to the Iron Dome allowed it to shoot down the rockets.

In total, 35 rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip struck populated areas over the course of Saturday and Sunday.

The military said that while this shows the Iron Dome is not impenetrable, the system was overall effective, with 240 interceptions and an 86 percent success rate. The Iron Dome’s radars also successfully spotted every rocket and mortar launch, which ensured that Israelis were warned of incoming projectiles ahead of time.

A picture taken from the southern village of Netiv Ha’asara shows missiles fired from Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepting rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on May 4, 2019. (Thomas Coex/AFP)

The military accused the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad of instigating the massive flareup with its sniper attack on the border and said the terror group kept it going by rejecting ceasefire offers throughout the fighting. Though the terror group gets most of its funding and support from Iran, the IDF believes that these decisions were not the result of pressure from Tehran but came from domestic political considerations.

The army said the terror group ultimately accepted a truce due to intense pressure from Hamas and Egypt.

The IDF said the group also appeared to be surprised by the number of airstrikes against it over the weekend, as typically Israel focuses its attacks on Hamas, under the belief that, as the de facto ruler of Gaza, the terror group should bear responsibility for all violence emanating from the enclave, regardless of the source.

In Israel’s strikes, at least eight members of Islamic Jihad were killed and dozens of its facilities were hit, including an attack tunnel that was under construction in the southern Gaza Strip.

IDF says it destroyed an attack tunnel crossing under the border from Gaza to Israel, May 4, 2019. (Israel Defense Forces)

The military said the group had recently intensified its efforts to complete the tunnel in order to conduct a cross-border raid.

The IDF said that the government’s directive to strike a balance between aggressive retaliations and restraint to prevent war prompted heated disagreement on the IDF General Staff over the decision by army chief Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi to conduct so-called “targeted killings” — assassinations of terrorist leaders with pinpoint strikes — a practice that the military had abandoned in recent years.

Top officers were concerned that such strikes could lead to a wider campaign, as it did in November 2012, when the IDF assassinated Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari and sparked the week-long Operation Pillar of Defense.

Ultimately, these objections were overruled and the military conducted the airstrike, killing Hamas field commander Hamed al-Khodari, whom the IDF says funneled large amounts of money from Iran to terror groups in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian emergency personnel try to put out the fire on a car belonging to Hamas field commander Hamad al-Khodari, in Gaza City, after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike on May 5, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

The IDF said al-Khodari was tracked by multiple drones before the strike as he was driving through the streets of Gaza City.

The military waited until the other passengers in his car got out before conducting the strike. He was the only person killed in the attack, though three bystanders were reportedly injured. The military later released what it said was drone footage of the strike.

According to the military, al-Khodari was technically the second assassination conducted over the course of the fighting. On Saturday, the military also killed a senior member of Hamas’s drone unit in an airstrike as he was riding on a motorcycle.

The IDF said a number of armed unmanned aerial vehicles were used in attempted attacks on Israeli troops along the border, but that these efforts were not successful.

Hamas’s military wing boasted Monday that it had developed a new rocket-launching tactic that “overcame” Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, leading to the deaths and injuries of numerous Israelis over the past two days.

A spokesman for Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said in a social media post that “The Qassam Brigades, thanks to God, succeeded in overcoming the so-called Iron Dome by adopting the tactic of firing dozens of missiles in one single burst.”

“The high intensity of fire and the great destructive ability of the missiles that were introduced by the Qassam [Brigades]… succeeded in causing great losses and destruction to the enemy,” he added.

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However, while Hamas and Islamic Jihad indeed attempted to overwhelm Iron Dome by repeatedly firing large fusillades at a specific location, comparatively few rockets actually succeeded in penetrating the system, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

An Israeli child on May 6, 2019, looks at shattered glass at the entrance to a building damaged by a rocket strike from the Gaza Strip, in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod. (Jack Guez/AFP)

In all, Gaza’s terror groups fired some 690 projectiles at Israel during the 41 hours of fighting from Saturday morning to predawn Monday — the largest-ever number of projectiles fired from the Strip in a two-day period.

In one case, over the course of one hour, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday evening, at least 117 rockets were fired at the city of Ashdod, but only one of the projectiles made it past Israel’s air defenses.

That rocket killed Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman, 21, a dual American-Israeli citizen, as he was running for shelter as the alert siren sounded.

Israeli emergency personnel gather at the site of a rocket attack in the southern Israeli town of Ashdod on May 5, 2019. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Three other Israelis were killed in attacks from the Strip on Sunday: Moshe Agadi, 58; Zaid al-Hamamdeh, 47; and Moshe Feder, 68.

Feder was not killed by ballistic rocket fire, but by an anti-tank guided missile fired at his car as he drove on a road near the Gaza border.

He sustained a serious shrapnel wound to the leg, causing significant blood loss, and was pronounced dead at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center after resuscitation efforts failed. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

During the fighting, Hamas also attempted to use a new style of rocket, one with a short range and a heavy warhead, packed with dozens to hundreds of kilograms of explosives.

An Israeli police sapper holds part of an exploded Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in a village near the Gaza border, May 5, 2019. (AP/Tsafrir Abayov)

The terror group believed these rockets would get past Israel’s air defenses, just as, during the 2014 Gaza war, Iron Dome struggled to intercept short-range mortar shells.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also said it used a new longer range rocket with a 250-kilogram warhead, known as the Badr 3, in its attacks on the coastal city of Ashkelon.

However, technological upgrades and other improvements to the Iron Dome allowed it to shoot down these different rockets, Maj. Tom Scott, one of the commanders of an Iron Dome battery in southern Israel, told The Times of Israel during the fighting.

Maj. Tom Scott, a commander of an Iron Dome missile defense battery, stands in front of one of the systems in an undated photograph. (Israel Defense Forces)

“We try to stay ahead of them even as they are trying to get ahead of us,” he said.

According to Scott, the missile defense system is capable of intercepting “many different threats,” including “large barrages or short-range rockets or rockets fired at high altitude or at low altitude.”

In total, 35 rockets and mortar shells of the nearly 700 fired from the Gaza Strip struck populated areas over the course of Saturday and Sunday, according to the military.

The military said that while this underlined that the Iron Dome is not impenetrable, the system was overall effective, with 240 interceptions and an 86 percent success rate — similar to previous rounds of intensive rocket fire.

Scott noted that the Iron Dome’s radars also successfully spotted every rocket and mortar launch, which ensured that Israelis were warned of incoming projectiles ahead of time by sirens.

Illustrative: Screen capture from a speech given by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades Spokesperson Abu Obeida on April 17, 2016. (Facebook)

In response to the onslaught from Gaza, the Israeli military conducted over 300 strikes from the air and land, including a rare assassination of a terrorist operative, who the IDF said funneled money from Iran to terror groups in the Strip.

“In the past two days, we’ve renewed the policy of assassinating senior terrorists. We’ve killed dozens of Hamas and [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad terrorists and we toppled terror towers,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also defense minister, said Monday.

A spokesperson for Hamas also said that although the recent flareup in violence had come to an end, the wider conflict would continue.

“The resistance managed to deter the IDF,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, according to the Kan public broadcaster, referring to the Gaza terror groups.

A picture taken from the southern village of Netiv Ha’asara shows missiles fired from Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepting rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on May 4, 2019. (Thomas Coex/AFP)

“Our message is that this round is over, but the conflict will not end until we regain our rights.”

The ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza terror groups went into effect at 4:30 a.m. Monday, according to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups.

The Israeli government refused to confirm the reported truce, apparently so as to avoid publicly acknowledging its negotiations with terrorist groups.

However, the military announced that, as of 7 a.m., it was lifting all security restrictions that had been in place in the south during the fighting, and that schools would be allowed to open, indicating that a ceasefire had indeed been reached.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes, including two pregnant women and a baby. Israel said one of the women and the baby were killed in a failed rocket launch inside Gaza and not as a result of IDF actions.

The scene of a car hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip near the Israel-Gaza border on May 5, 2019. (Noam Rivkin Fenton/Flash90)

An IDF spokesperson could not immediately comment on the reported death toll in Gaza. The IDF said it only struck terrorist targets.

At least 11 of the Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since Friday were members of terror groups, according to Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Eight of the eleven members of terror groups belonged to the Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s military wing.

The Al-Quds Brigades confirmed on its website the identities of eight of its members killed in Isaeli strikes.

Hamas’s Qassam Brigades similarly confirmed in statements that three others killed during the fighting belonged to its ranks.

Unlike past rounds of fighting, the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad was accused by Israel of being a main instigator of the violence over the weekend, rather than Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.