Putting a US supercarrier near Israel is mainly for show and not an effective deterrent, expert says

The deployment of the US Navy's newest supercarrier to the eastern Mediterranean to deter regional powers from joining the war in Israel is likely more for optics, an expert told Insider.

The attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel over the weekend prompted the Pentagon to announce that it was sending the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the area in order "to deter any actor seeking to escalate the situation or widen this war."

US military officials said earlier this week that escalation could occur if Israel's Middle Eastern neighbors — including Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group — became heavily involved.

But Hayat Alvi, an associate professor at the US Naval College who focuses on the Middle East, told Insider that both Iran and Lebanon are still reeling from political and economic disasters in their own countries and that they would be in too bad of shape to engage Israel.