WASHINGTON: The United States Navy on Monday announced that it is ending the deployment of the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier in Middle East.
The Navy’s newest nuclear-powered carrier with over 4,000 personnel and eight squadrons of aircraft, was sent to the region after the war between Israel and Hamas started on October 7.
According to Gaza health ministry nearly 22,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in relentless Israeli bombardments so far.
The Navy in a statement said the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean to contribute to our regional deterrence and defense posture.
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Earlier, the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had extended the deployment of the aircraft carrier three times.
The Navy said that the Department of Defense will continue to leverage its joint force posture in the region to deter any state or non-state actor from escalating the Gaza crisis.
Aircraft carrier to return back to its home base
The Ford will return back to its home base in Virginia.
The UN has said that some 1.87 million Palestinians, over 80 percent of Gaza’s population, have left their homes because of the Israeli bombardment of the besieged enclave.
The Israeli raids have almost destroyed entire neighborhoods in northern Gaza. Israeli ground troops have been facing heavy resistance from Hamas fighters in the area.
The United States in early December also set up a multinational naval task force in the Red Sea following a flurry of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on merchant vessels which led shipping companies to suspend passages through the area.
