WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy has dispatched a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean to serve as a deterrent as Washington seeks to ensure that the Israel-Hamas fighting does not expand into a wider regional conflict.

The addition of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to the USS Gerald R. Ford group sent earlier brings the total number of assigned American warships to 10. About 12,000 personnel are deployed or en route to the waters off Israel, in a swift buildup of the U.S. military presence.