Israel has agreed to hold off its ground invasion into Gaza until the Pentagon can get nearly a dozen air-defense systems in place.

According to the WSJ, it’s the Biden administration that has made this request of Israel:

Israel has agreed, for now, to a request from the U.S. to get its air defenses in place to protect U.S. troops in the region ahead of an expected ground invasion of Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials said.

The Pentagon is scrambling to deploy nearly a dozen air-defense systems to the region, including for U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to protect them from missiles and rockets. U.S. officials have so far persuaded the Israelis to hold off until those pieces can be placed, as early as later this week.

Israel is also taking into account in its planning the effort to supply humanitarian aid to civilians inside Gaza, as well as diplomatic efforts to free more of the hostages held by Hamas, officials said.

But the threats to the U.S. troops are of a paramount concern, U.S. officials said. U.S. military and other officials believe that American forces will be targeted by various militant groups once the incursion begins.

So far in Iraq and Syria, there have been at least 13 such attacks, using drones and missiles, which have resulted in the death of one American contractor and the destruction of an American drone, U.S. officials said. At least two dozen troops were injured in Syria and another 10 in Iraq, defense officials said, nearly all of them minor.

It’s always something! Yes, I’m glad the US is trying to protect our troops in the Middle East given this new escalating threat. But at the same time, Israel needs to get this ground invasion underway because of the continued threat to its own people and to its troops. Every day this ground invasion is delayed, it gives Hamas more opportunities to strengthen its positions and possibly get arms in from the outside. Hamas must be destroyed and that begins once the invasion begins and it needs to happen now!