The Pentagon will send an additional fighter squadron and more warships to the Middle East to help defend Israel should Iran react militarily to this week's assassination of Hamas' top political leader in Tehran that Iran has blamed on Israel.

The United States will also maintain an aircraft carrier presence in the Middle East as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt that was on a short-term deployment to the Middle East.

The deployments follow President Joe Biden's commitment to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday about "new defensive US military deployments" to the region.

Austin "ordered adjustments to U.S. military posture designed to improve U.S. force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel, and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies," the Pentagon said in a statement issued Friday.