As we told you earlier, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel has agreed to delay the invasion of Gaza for now so the US can rush missile defences to the region.
According to the news outlet, the Pentagon is working to deploy nearly a dozen air defence systems to protect US troops in surrounding areas from missiles and rockets.
A ground offensive by Israel has been expected, and many thought it would have happened by now.
Sky News security and defence editor Deborah Haynes said if the reason for the delay was to allow the US to push defences into the Middle East, it would “seem to be ending soon”.
“I spoke to the prime minister’s spokesperson, he had a daily briefing, and asked him about that reporting, and he said Israel is moving forward with its plan, and it will be acting in accordance with its own requirements,” she added.
“It’s not shooting from the hip, was the language that the spokesperson used.
“The intent remains to destroy Hamas but clearly it is not going to be able to do that through military means alone, so they’ve set this objective.
“They have a military operation behind it, but everybody can see that as this military force escalates… and there’s anticipation of a ground offensive, the huge concern is the ramifications for the region.
“That’s why you’ve got the US so worried about the impact on American assets here and whether they too could be indirectly impacted, especially if Iranian-backed groups decided to get more heavily involved.”
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