THE US is preparing to evacuate American civilians from inside Lebanon for fear of an all-out war with Israel across its southern border.
The American amphibious warship USS Wasp and a unit of Marines set sail for the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, defense officials revealed.
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Its forces will join the USS Oak Hill, already docked in Middle Eastern waters, alongside a third ship that is ready and waiting for action.
Three US defense officials and a former US official said NBC The Wasp was sent to the eastern Mediterranean to prepare for a military-assisted departure.
Marines are trained to help people escape turbulent environments and the Wasp can even deploy long-range F-35 stealth fighters if necessary.
Along with the Marine Expeditionary Unit, the U.S. presence abroad was designed to act as a deterrent against escalating tensions in the region.
Violent tit-for-tat attacks on the Israel-Lebanon border have soared in recent weeks.
The proxy for Iranian-backed terrorism, Hezbollah, operates from Lebanon and has been trying to unleash hell across the border for months since October 7th.
Allied with the Hamas group, also favored by Iran, Hezbollah is equally anti-West and anti-Israel – but bigger.
The odds of such exchanges triggering an all-out armed conflict are increasingly likely as the days pass.
The US fears Israel could carry out airstrikes and a ground offensive inside Lebanon within weeks, US officials have warned.
And despite pressure from Israel’s biggest ally – the US – Biden’s calls for restraint have fallen on deaf ears.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s forces plan to create a 16-kilometer buffer zone above its northern border with Lebanon, repelling Hezbollah.
If a diplomatic route to achieve this fails, they are willing to use force.
An Israeli official said the aim is to end violent cross-border skirmishes that have displaced tens of thousands of Israelis out of fear for their safety.
A Middle East expert told The Sun that Israel is now more focused on confronting the Iranian-backed threat in Lebanon than on defeating Gaza-based Hamas.
Speaking to The Sun from Jerusalem, Professor Kaufman said: “We may be facing a situation where Hezbollah units could try to cross the border to take some territory from Israel, just as Israeli forces could do in Lebanon.”
He told us that “his elite force has been training for this possible scenario” for years.
Hezbollah is thought to have between 30,000 and 50,000 fighters and between 120,000 and 200,000 missiles, rockets, attack and reconnaissance drones.
They are considered the largest and most powerful non-state military force in the world.
A few days ago, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened a war “without restrictions, without rules and without limits” if Israel launched an offensive.
In a disturbing warning, he said Israel should be “scared” and told the world they had “new weapons” ready to be used.
It came less than a week after Taleb Abdullah was killed in an Israeli attack – the most senior Hezbollah commander to be removed since October.
Israeli authorities say they are prepared to go to war with Hezbollah – but the country is already embroiled in a conflict where tens of thousands of people have died.
Netanyahu’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz has promised that an explicit decision on an “all-out war” with the group will come soon.
Without a ceasefire in Gaza, tensions between the two are unlikely to dissipate.
The war in Gaza has been going on for more than eight months.
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