President Donald Trump’s Pentagon has quietly deployed paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne in Israel, the latest sign of escalating tensions in the war in Iran, according to a new report.
Journalist Ken Klippenstein reported on his Substack on Monday, citing a military source involved in war planning, that the deployment is part of a contingency plan between the U.S. and Israel “for seizing Kharg Island and carving out coastal territory inside Iran.” That plan, Klippenstein reported, has been in place since at least February.
“By keeping the deployment quiet, the Pentagon headed off public debate over a joint U.S.-Israeli operation inside Iran — a prospect many considered plausible at the time, amid a fever pitch of mainstream reporting on a potential ground invasion,” the report reads. “The secrecy also sidestepped what’s euphemistically called “host nation sensitivities.” A joint U.S.-Israeli operation raises thorny questions for America’s Gulf Arab “partners,” especially over logistical support — hence the 82nd, which could launch directly from Israel without any Gulf state’s consent to use its territory.”
“The Army deployment order, issued April 7, 2026, directs elements of the 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment — the storied ‘Geronimo’ battalion — to deploy to Israel on ‘temporary duty.’ The Israel deployment has not been previously reported,” it added.
“The Pentagon has never acknowledged it; in public it has said only that the 82nd was bound for ‘CENTCOM,’ the military’s term for U.S. Central Command, the combatant command responsible for the entire Middle East. The press echoed the vague terminology, suggesting the unit was headed to existing U.S. bases in Kuwait or Qatar,” the report continued.
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