The Pentagon announced the deployment of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean  “as part of our effort to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas’s attack on Israel”. The following day, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the bolstered presence was “not meant as a provocation; it’s meant as a deterrent. It’s meant to make clear that no one should do anything that could add fuel to the fire in any other place”.