US says it will retaliate if American forces are attacked in Middle East

The United States sees the prospect of a significant escalation in attacks on its troops in the Middle East and of Iran seeking to widen the Israel-Hamas war, the top US diplomat and defence officials said on Sunday. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the United States did not want to see the conflict spread and that recent US deployments to the region were designed to prevent this.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC News that he expects the war to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran, adding that the administration of US President Joe Biden is prepared to respond if American personnel become the target of any such hostilities.

"We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people and respond decisively if we need to," Blinken said, noting that additional military assets had been deployed to the Middle East, including two aircraft carrier battle groups.

The US diplomat also said Israel does not want to rule the Gaza Strip after the war with Hamas draws to a close, according to his discussions with Israeli officials.

But he emphasised that after the war, there could be no return to the status quo.

"You [Israel] cannot be in a position where you are constantly exposed to the threat of the most terrible terrorist attacks from the Gaza Strip," said Blinken. "So something needs to be found that ensures that Hamas can't do this again, but that also doesn't revert to Israeli governance of Gaza, which they do not want and do not intend to do."

"We're concerned about potential escalation. In fact, what we're seeing … is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC's "This Week" program. "If any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict ... our advice is: don't."

The United States has sent significant naval power to the Middle East in recent weeks, including two aircraft carriers, their support ships and about 2,000 Marines.

On Saturday, the Pentagon said it will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and additional Patriot air defence missile system battalions to the region in response to recent attacks.

Last week a US warship shot down more than a dozen drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen. Drones and rockets also targeted two bases housing US forces in Iraq.

The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighboring Syria, on a mission to advise and assist local forces to combat Islamic State, which in 2014 seized swathes of both countries.

Blinken and Austin both spoke of the need to find a longer-term solution for Gaza, which Israel occupied in a 1967 Middle East war.

Blinken said there needed to be a way to ensure Hamas could not again conduct an attack like its rampage on southern Israeli communities on October 7, in which it took about 200 hostages, but one that did not entail Israel resuming governance of Gaza.

"They're different ideas out there about what could follow. But all of that I think needs to be worked and it's something that needs to be worked even as Israel is dealing with the current threat," he added.

Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the fenced border around Gaza for a planned ground invasion aiming to annihilate Hamas, after several inconclusive wars dating to its seizure of power there in 2007, after Israel ended a 38-year occupation.

Israel's army has been bombing Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip since bloody attacks by Hamas on 7 October. At the weekend, the Israeli Air Force increased its attacks again in preparation for a ground offensive on Gaza. It is not clear what may be Israel's endgame for Gaza.