After the Iranian attack, the US is stationing the Thaad missile defense system in Israel

The United States says it will send a high-altitude missile defense system and a U.S. military team to Israel to bolster its air defenses after a missile attack from Iran earlier this month.

A Pentagon statement said President Joe Biden had ordered the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery and its crew to be deployed “in defense of Israel.”

Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1st. The Israeli military said most were intercepted but some hit central and southern Israel.

Israel has not yet said how it will respond to the attack, but Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said it will be “deadly, precise and, above all, surprising.”

Iran, in turn, has said it will not let any attack by Israel go unanswered.

The Pentagon said the Thaad deployment “underscores the United States' ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel and the defense of Americans in Israel from further ballistic missile attacks by Iran.”

The US had previously sent a Thaad battery to the Middle East after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 last year. Already in 2019, a Thaad battery was sent to Israel for training and an air defense exercise.

Iran said its rocket fire was in response to Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Israel has dramatically expanded its campaign against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in recent weeks, carrying out deadly airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon and parts of Beirut.

Previously, Israel and Hezbollah had engaged in almost daily cross-border firing since last October, when Hezbollah began firing on Israel in what it said was a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza. It had announced that it would cease fire if there was a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, international efforts to persuade Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza have so far failed.