The U.S. Department of Defense has positioned F-16 warplanes and is in the preparatory stages of sending Iron Dome missile defense systems to Tel Aviv as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) prepares its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip to free hostages and hunt down Hamas terrorists.
A Pentagon official confirmed the recent development about the jets and weapon systems to Fox News, Tuesday night.
“The U.S. will be flowing additional Iron Dome support to Israel,” the Pentagon official told the national news network. “As a result, the Department of Defense is currently engaged in planning to support the provision of U.S. Iron Dome batteries to Israel.”
“In addition to the capabilities that we've already announced, I can also confirm that the New Jersey Air National Guard's 119th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron arrived within U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility today with additional F-16 fighting Falcon Squadron bolstering U.S. posture to deter further aggression in the region,” one DoD official added.
Terrorist fighters with Hamas have fired 3,000 rockets at Israel since Oct. 7, but Israel's Iron Dome neutralized around 90% of the threats, according to the IDF.
The Iron Dome system can detect and neutralize incoming missiles as far as 40 miles away. It was first used in 2011.
While the U.S. prepares to ship avionic weapons to the promised land, the IDF reported Tuesday evening that more Hamas terrorist fighters tried to breach the Israeli coastline earlier in the day.
“Hamas terrorists attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory by sea were identified by naval forces in southern Israel earlier today,” the IDF wrote in a post published on X.
“The terrorists were thwarted and the tunnel was struck, in addition to a weapons warehouse used by the terrorists in Gaza,” the post explained.
In an update, the IDF later said that “Hamas terrorists were found exiting a tunnel on the Gaza coast, attempting to infiltrate southern Israel via sea.”
The military previously released video of an Israeli naval squad that prevented Hamas fighters from reaching the country’s coastline on Oct. 7, when the terrorist attacks began.
The video depicts IDF troops disabling Hamas speedboats, which ignited, and shooting terrorists in the water.
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