U.S. Moves Warships to Defend Israel in Case of Iranian Attack

The U.S. rushed warships into position to protect Israel and American forces in the region, hoping to head off a direct attack from Iran on Israel that could come as soon as Friday or Saturday.

The moves by the U.S. that are part of an effort to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East came after a warning from a person familiar with the matter about the timing and location of the potential Iranian attack. A person briefed by the Iranian leadership, however, said that while plans to attack are being discussed, no final decision has been made.

Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, discussed a possible Iranian attack with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Israel on Friday. “We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners, and we will know how to respond,” Gallant said, according to Israel’s Defense Ministry.

The U.S. moves included repositioning two destroyers, one of which was already in the region and another that was redirected there, U.S. officials said, adding that at least one of the vessels carried the Aegis missile-defense system.

President Biden, asked Friday when an Iranian strike on Israel may occur, said, “My expectation is sooner than later.” Asked if he had a message for Iran, Biden said: “Don’t.”

“We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel and help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” Biden said.

U.S. officials fear that an Iranian strike against Israel could prompt an Israeli response inside Iran that could spark a regional conflict and draw in the U.S., whose forces and allies in the Middle East could be targeted by Tehran if its territory is hit.

John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesman, said Friday that Iran’s threats to strike Israel remain “real” and “viable.”

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of Israel’s general staff, met with Kurilla about a possible Iranian attack after a separate meeting with commanders on the readiness of Israeli forces.

Late Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had called Gallant to reassure him Washington would defend its closest ally in the region if Tehran struck on its soil. Austin told Gallant “Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against Iranian attacks, which Tehran has publicly threatened,” a Pentagon spokesman said.

Iran has threatened to retaliate for an attack last week in Damascus, Syria, that Tehran said was an Israeli airstrike on a diplomatic building. The strike killed several top Iranian military officials, including a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force.

An Iranian strike on Israel could inflame the region as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is under growing international pressure to wrap up its military campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza, which has claimed more than 33,000 lives, have ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East to a level not seen in decades.

In their phone call on Thursday, Gallant told Austin that “a direct Iranian attack would require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran,” the Israeli Defense Ministry said.

U.S. officials, frustrated by Israel’s decision to not inform them about the Damascus strike, have pushed their Israeli counterparts to share information about how Israel could respond to an Iranian strike, U.S. officials said, in part to protect forces in the region.

Netanyahu met Friday with senior security officials, including Gallant, to discuss Israel’s readiness for an Iranian response, according to Israeli officials.

In Tel Aviv, residents went about their day on Friday, flocking to cafes and shops on the first day of the Israeli weekend.

“We are strong. We are not afraid,” said Andrey Uchitel, 48, who took a leisurely walk with his friend on the Tel Aviv boardwalk. “It will be OK in the end.”

Israel’s Home Front Command, which is tasked with preparing the public for disasters and conflict, hasn’t issued any changes to its emergency instructions to the public, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Thursday night.

Last week, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, publicly threatened retaliation for the Damascus strike and Israel disrupted local GPS networks that can be used to guide weapons. But the Israeli military sought to calm the public over a possible attack. “There is no need to buy generators, store food and withdraw money from” cash machines, Hagari said at the time.

The U.S., which doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Tehran, has encouraged its European and Middle Eastern allies to pressure Iran not to attack Israel, American and British officials said on Friday.

The foreign ministers of Germany and the U.K.—Annalena Baerbock and David Cameron—called their Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Thursday to ask Tehran not to attack Israel, according to British and Iranian officials.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two U.S. allies in the Middle East, conveyed the same message to the Islamic Republic, the officials said.

In separate talks with Oman last weekend, Amir-Abdollahian said privately Iran’s response would be calibrated to avoid any response that would lead to further escalation in the region, according to Omani and British officials and a Syrian government adviser.

France on Friday pulled family members of its diplomatic staff from Tehran and advised its citizens to refrain from traveling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel or the Palestinian territories in the coming days. It also banned missions by French officials to those countries.

The American Embassy in Israel said Thursday that U.S. government employees and family members would be restricted from any personal travel outside of central Israel, Jerusalem and Beersheba until further notice. German airline Lufthansa also extended the suspension of its flights to Tehran due to the situation in the Middle East until next Thursday.

Attacks by rockets and drones from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and more recently from places like Iraq and Yemen, have become commonplace in Israel. Most are intercepted by Israel’s air-defense system or fall in unpopulated areas.

The scenarios for a potential attack on Israel that have been presented to Khamenei include strikes by Tehran’s proxies in Syria and Iraq, according to advisers to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Syrian government.

To avoid an attack within Israel’s internationally recognized territory, Iran and its allies could also attack the Golan Heights, a disputed territory annexed by Israel from Syria in 1981, the advisers said. Another option would be to hit Israeli embassies, notably in the Arab world, to show them that friendly ties with Israel could be costly, these people said.

In recent days, social-media accounts associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have stepped up messaging around a potential attack on Israel. Several widely shared posts include satellite images of prominent locations in Israel, such as Ben Gurion Airport, surrounded by Iranian attack drones.

“What place do you love? The choice is in your hands,” the posts, which were picked up by several Israeli media, say in Hebrew.

Another post includes a video showing an Iranian hypersonic missile with the Farsi caption “5 minutes to Haifa and Tel Aviv.”

Anat Peled, Ken Thomas, Nancy A. Youssef and Summer Said contributed to this article.

Write to Gordon Lubold at [email protected], Dov Lieber at [email protected] and Benoit Faucon at [email protected]