US defense secretary is in Israel to meet with its leaders and see America’s security assistance

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin addresses a media conference on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
TEL AVIV – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Israel on Friday for meetings with senior government leaders and to see firsthand some of the U.S. weapons and security assistance that Washington rapidly delivered to Israel in the first week of its war with the militant Hamas group.
Austin is the second high-level U.S. official to visit Israel in two days. His quick trip from Brussels, where he was attending a NATO defense ministers meeting, came a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the region. Blinken is continuing the frantic Mideast diplomacy, seeking to avert an expanded regional conflict.
Austin met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and was also to meet with Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and the Israeli War Cabinet.
Also Friday, the Israeli military directed hundreds of thousands of residents in Gaza City to evacuate “for their own safety and protection,” ahead of a feared Israeli ground offensive. Gaza’s Hamas rulers responded by calling on Palestinians to “remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm