US moves to deter Iran ahead of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza

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As Israel prepares to launch a major ground offensive in Gaza, the US is using the delay to rush defensive systems into the region amid growing fears that Iran and its proxies will escalate attacks on US forces and allied interests after the invasion begins, officials said.

According to officials, the move to stiffen its security in the region comes after roughly a dozen attacks on US troops since October 18 which have wounded two dozen US personnel. Washington is girding for more as Israel prepares for its military assault on Gaza.

Israel’s planned invasion has been held up in part by disagreements within its own security apparatus on the path forward, officials say. On Tuesday night, when asked if the US was urging Israel to delay the ground invasion, President Joe Biden said “the Israelis are making their own decisions”.

Military strategists in Washington have welcomed the pause, saying it has given the US time to send air defences, additional personnel and ships to the region. They hope this will deter Iran as tensions escalate across the region.

Several officials said the US was particularly concerned about Lebanon-based Hizbollah, which is backed by Iran. Israeli forces and the militant group — which fought a 34-day war in 2006 — have exchanged cross-border rocket fire in the past two weeks, although both sides have appeared to be seeking to avoid a full-blown conflict.

On Tuesday, a news agency close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Hizbollah’s involvement in a war with Israel was now “likely”, and could use precision-guided missiles with a range capable of striking all of Israel.

Iran-backed Shia groups have also reportedly moved from Iraq into western Syria near the Israeli border, causing concern among US officials. The US’s Ain al-Asad base in western Iraq was targeted by rockets earlier this week as well as the Al Tanf garrison in Syria.

The USS Carney, part of the Eisenhower carrier strike group currently in the Northern Red Sea, also shot down 15 drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, headed towards Israel last Thursday, US officials said. Read the full story here.

• UN condemns Gaza ‘violations’: UN chief António Guterres yesterday condemned “clear violations of international law” in Gaza, going on to say that the deadly assault by Hamas on October 7 “did not happen in a vacuum”. The remarks triggered a furious response from Israel.

• Visual story: With its leafy boulevards, beauty salons and shopping malls, the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City was known for its buzz. Here’s how Israeli air strikes reduced much of it to rubble.

• ‘I went through hell’: Yocheved Lifshitz, the 85-year-old Israeli hostage freed by Hamas, described her experience being held captive in the tunnels beneath Gaza.

• Postwar plan fears: Israel has yet to agree a detailed plan for postwar Gaza, raising fears that a land invasion could begin without adequate preparation for its aftermath.

• ‘Davos in the Desert’: Saudi Arabia’s flagship investment conference has steered clear of the Israel-Hamas conflict, as Riyadh hopes to send a business-as-usual message that it remains open for investment.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: The Ifo Institute releases its business climate index for Germany.

• Sunak’s anniversary: The UK marks one year since Rishi Sunak became prime minister.

• Results: Carrefour, Dassault Systèmes, Deutsche Bank, Heineken, Porsche, Reckitt Benckiser and Santander report.

Five more top stories

1. Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson was selected as the fourth Republican nominee for Speaker of the House in less than a month. Johnson was put forward after Donald Trump torpedoed Tom Emmer’s bid, calling him a “globalist RINO”, or Republican in name only, compounding the chaos that has gripped Capitol Hill for weeks.

2. Deutsche Bank has projected its highest annual revenue in seven years, saying it would have capacity to increase dividends and share buybacks over the next two years as it reported better than expected third-quarter results. Pre-tax profit at Germany’s largest lender rose to €1.7bn, beating analyst forecasts of €1.6bn. It was buoyed by rising interest rates, which helped its corporate and private banking divisions, while investment bank revenues fell 4 per cent. The bank’s shares rose more than 5 per cent in early trading.

3. Michael Cohen says he ‘reverse engineered’ Donald Trump’s financial statements. Testifying at a Manhattan courtroom, the one-time fixer and personal lawyer of Donald Trump said he had been instructed by the former US president to “reverse engineer” the value of assets that are now at the cornerstone of a $250mn civil fraud lawsuit.

4. Microsoft received an unexpected financial boost from generative AI while Google struggled with sagging growth in cloud computing, a core part of its business, quarterly results showed yesterday. The contrasting performance of two of the tech industry’s biggest arch-rivals underlines the early lead Microsoft has taken in the AI race.

5. The chair of UK-listed Ukrainian miner Ferrexpo has urged Kyiv to spare the company, as Ukrainian prosecutors seek damages from its billionaire founder, who is wanted for alleged embezzlement involving a now-collapsed bank. Ferrexpo chair Lucio Genovese said the legal actions risked undermining investor confidence in Ukraine.

News in-depth

More than 820,000 people fled Russia after last year’s invasion of Ukraine, in one of the biggest waves of emigration from the country since the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. Now, some have changed their minds — a sign of how the Kremlin has managed to maintain a vestige of normality in Moscow and contain some of the biggest economic shockwaves from the war.

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Chart of the day

The UK’s controversial private finance initiative experiment was launched in the early 1990s to let public sector authorities build schools and hospitals through borrowing from banks and other investors, who would then maintain the assets over decades. With an increasing number of disputes and multiple cases of litigation, PFI is now entering a painful wind-down.

Take a break from the news

Pop’s most famous Household Cavalryman, James Blunt, returns with his new album Who We Used to Be, an emotive project full of efficiently assembled heartfelt clichés. Read the full review here.

Additional contributions from Gary Jones