{"id":307131,"date":"2026-02-24T04:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/307131\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T04:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:42:11","slug":"us-jets-gerald-r-ford-aircraft-carrier-arrive-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/307131\/","title":{"rendered":"US jets, Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier arrive in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">As part of the reinforcements, US tankers, as well as cargo and refueling aircraft, have arrived at Israeli airports and docks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The Ford carrier strike group, officially known as Carrier Strike Group 12, entered the Mediterranean after transiting the Strait of Gibraltar, a movement reported by multiple outlets tracking US naval deployments. The US Navy has not formally confirmed when the carrier will dock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Haifa suffered significant damage during the Israel-Iran war in June, with dozens injured from missile fire and structural damage to homes and municipality buildings.<\/p>\n<p>Haifa is home to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-887149\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Israel Navy<\/a> headquarters and the largest oil refinery in Israel, which was hit during the war, forcing a partial, temporary shutdown of some secondary facilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Another major target during the war was the Haifa port, which Iran has previously threatened to strike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The US has spent several weeks growing its Middle Eastern arsenal, despite already having a large presence in the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">More than 40,000 personnel are stationed across military bases and naval assets, and with Ford\u2019s arrival, several thousand more service members will be added to that total.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to boosting its presence in Israel, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/article-887628\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon<\/a>, on Monday evacuated dozens of non-essential personnel via Beirut\u2013Rafic Hariri International Airport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">This was &#8220;a precautionary measure due to anticipated regional developments,&#8221; as first reported by Lebanese broadcaster LBCI and later confirmed by the US State Department.<\/p>\n<p>James Genn contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of the reinforcements, US tankers, as well as cargo and refueling aircraft, have arrived at Israeli&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28298,24741,42,15005,26342,2726,47,43,9631,40,38,41,39,48717,127305,33578,128708],"class_list":{"0":"post-307131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-aircraft","9":"tag-haifa","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-israel-iran-war","12":"tag-israel-navy","13":"tag-mediterranean-sea","14":"tag-middle-east","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-pentagon","17":"tag-top-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topnews","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-us-military","22":"tag-us-navy","23":"tag-will-israel-attack-iran","24":"tag-will-us-attack-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}