The Pentagon is expanding its military presence in the Middle East and Europe in response to worsening hostilities between Israel and Iran, U.S. officials said Monday, sending refueling planes and an additional aircraft carrier among the resources dispatched.

U.S. officials told multiple outlets that the Navy directed the USS Thomas Hudner, a destroyer capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, from the western Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where it will join the USS Arleigh Burke. A second destroyer was also ordered to change course to be available if requested.

Hostilities between Israel and Iran have entered the fifth day after Israel refused any diplomatic overtures from Iran overnight to stop the ongoing conflict. In response, The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued an evacuation directive,

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the first to respond to the attack publicly with a statement Thursday evening — but others have yet to comment.

Israel and Iran have begun a new round of attacks, as the conflict between the two heavily armed rivals enters its fourth day.

Before Israel struck Iran’s nuclear program, tensions were showing in U.S. lawmakers’ attitudes toward Israel. Democrats were increasingly critical of Israel’s war conduct in Gaza, with only a single Democratic senator reliably taking Israel’s side in public discourse.

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have refrained from attacking Israel directly since the start of the war between Israel and Iran on June 13. However, there have been two unclaimed attacks on US interests in Iraq since Operation Rising Lion began,

Meanwhile Donald Trump says his early G7 exit has "nothing to do" with an Israel-Iran ceasefire, as fighting between the two nations enters a fifth day.