The move comes as U.S. and Israeli officials have been holding talks on a planned Israeli strike on Iran. U.S. officials have urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government not to target Iran’s oil facilities and nuclear sites.

President Biden’s decision to approve the deployment came after extensive discussions among U.S. officials and with Israel over the country’s expected military response to Iran and how Tehran might retaliate.

If Iran responded to the planned Israeli strike with an attack on Israel, it would be the third instance of Tehran hitting Israeli territory this year.

The soldiers, just under 100 troops in all, would man the system, a rare U.S. deployment to Israel. How quickly the Pentagon can move the system to Israel wasn’t immediately clear. The administration didn’t say when the Thaad would be in place.

In a statement Sunday, the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the antimissile system to Israel at Biden’s direction “following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1.”

The statement added: “This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran.”

The U.S. decision comes after Iran shot roughly 180 ballistic missiles into Israel in response to an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Some of the missiles, which targeted Israeli military and intelligence sites, penetrated Israel’s antimissile defenses, raising fears that should Iran attack again, it might inflict serious damage. Iran’s Oct. 1 strikes led to minor damage at one Israeli military air base but no aircraft were damaged.

U.S. warships in the Mediterranean shot down ballistic missiles when Iran attacked Israel in April and earlier this month. The U.S. used F-15Es and F-16s to intercept Iranian drones during Iran’s April attack.

The Thaad would provide a ground-based defense in Israel, deepening American involvement in its defense.

“Thaad has been proven in combat operationally and has a great test record,” said Tom Karako, an expert on missile defense at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “It would provide additional capabilities.”

The U.S. temporarily sent a Thaad missile defense battery in 2019 to Israel as part of an exercise that the U.S. military said demonstrated Washington’s “continued commitment to Israel’s regional security.”

Israeli news reports over the weekend said the U.S. was considering sending the system but that no decision had been made.

Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, killing 1,200, the Pentagon sent additional air defense systems throughout the Middle East to protect U.S. troops who came under increased attacks by Iranian-proxy forces. In January three U.S. troops in Jordan were killed during a drone attack on their base. Another 40 were injured.

Israel has become increasingly dependent on the U.S. military to bolster its defenses against Iran’s sizable missile threat and that of the militant groups Tehran supports. The deployment of U.S. ships, planes and personnel has been intended to head off an all-out war in the region. But it has strained American military efforts to tackle threats from Russia and China, particularly its future ship deployment plans.

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, U.S. troops sent Patriot antimissile batteries to Israel, which were operated by American and Israeli crews, to defend the country against Iraq’s Scud missiles.

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