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← Pentagon Ground Plans 2026

The US is reinforcing forces in the Middle East, but what will Trump do?

Channel 13 News, an Israeli television news outlet, published a Hebrew report by Gil Tamari, ארה"ב מתגברת כוחות במזרח התיכון - אך מה יעשה טראמפ?. His byline reads 22 March, at 20:46. The page does not print a year. Tamari writes that the nuclear sites in the story were bombed "last June." Those US strikes were in June 2025, so this byline falls on 22 March 2026. The report says the Pentagon has finished plans for a ground invasion of Iran, to be used only if President Donald Trump orders it. An American family should care because the plans, as Tamari lists them, include seizing an Iranian oil island, three islands in the Strait of Hormuz, and bombed nuclear sites. He writes that it is still unclear whether Trump will give that order.

Background for new readers: On 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. The Pentagon calls its part Operation Epic Fury; Israel calls its part Operation Roaring Lion. It came eight months after a shorter war in June 2025, when US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The question running through this section is whether the air war turns into American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. This article is filed under Pentagon Ground Plans 2026; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The claim is that operational plans for a ground invasion were finished and ready if President Trump ordered them. Channel 13's Tamari states that condition himself and writes that the moves may also serve as deception. The troop numbers he gives are those expected in the region "within ten days."

What the article says​

Tamari writes that the Pentagon has finished drafting the operational plans for a ground invasion of Iran, in case Trump orders them carried out. Under those plans, he writes, about 7,500 American Marines would be in the region within ten days. About 5,000 would come from the south of Asia with the strike group led by the ship USS Tripoli. About 2,500 more fighters would come from bases in San Diego. Marines are ship-borne US ground troops who can land from the sea. He is describing forces on the way to the region, not forces he says are already inside Iran.

He writes that one of the main options being examined is seizing Iran's oil terminal on Kharg Island. Kharg is an Iranian island. He writes that every military target on the island has already been bombed.

לאחר שכל המטרות הצבאיות באי כבר הופצצו, האמריקנים מעריכים כי מדובר במשימה קלה יחסית שתמנע מאיראן 90% מייצוא הנפט שלה.

Gil Tamari, Channel 13 News, byline 22 March. In plain English: after all the military targets on the island had already been bombed, the Americans judge that this is a relatively easy mission, and that it would deny Iran 90 percent of its oil exports.

He immediately qualifies that. He writes that being close to Iran's coast could expose the forces on the island to frequent missile and drone attacks. "Relatively easy" is the estimate he attributes to the Americans. The next sentence on the page is the risk.

He writes that another option is taking three islands in the Strait of Hormuz. That strait is the narrow sea lane out of the Persian Gulf. The three, as he names them, are Qeshm, which he calls the arrow island, where missiles sit in underground tunnels; Kish, to its west; and Hormuz island, which he says is a base for kamikaze boats and attack boats.

A third strategic target, he writes, is seizing the Iranian nuclear sites bombed the previous June in an operation he names in Hebrew as פטיש חצות, which means midnight hammer. The aim of that move, he writes, would be to remove the stock of uranium enriched to 60 percent. Enriched uranium is uranium processed toward reactor fuel or a bomb. He writes that material at that level could be used to make nuclear bombs. He writes that the job would be an especially complex engineering operation, because the uranium is buried deep and stored in special containers that must be handled with extreme care to avoid deadly radiation.

He closes by saying it is not clear, for now, whether Trump will carry out the plans for what Tamari writes in Hebrew letters as the English phrase "boots on the ground." Boots on the ground means soldiers physically there, not only aircraft overhead. The alternative he offers is that the preparations are a deception ahead of widening the campaign.

What other reporting adds​

The same day's American picture. An X trending page updated 21 March, summarizing US reporting, said: "The U.S. has positioned parts of the elite 82nd Airborne Division in the Middle East and sent about 2,200 Marines from California on warships, with another unit en route from the Pacific," and that "no final decisions have been made." (X trending page; research capture: twitter/t49__v583.md). Two days before Tamari's report, CBS had reported "detailed preparations" for a ground-force option, and the White House said: "The Pentagon's plans to send ground forces to Iran do not mean they will be deployed at this time." (MonitorX on X, 20 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t50__v592.md).

Trump's line that week. "No, I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you, but I'm not putting troops." (USA Today video, 19 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t13__v147.md). Tamari's suggestion that the buildup might be a deception fits that line: a president who says he would not announce a landing.

The island list, four days later. On 26 March, Axios reported four "final blow" options, including seizing Kharg and taking Larak Island in the strait (see US said mulling 'final blow' options). Tamari's list names Qeshm, Kish, and Hormuz island. The two lists overlap on Kharg and differ on the strait islands.

What it shows​

Israel's Channel 13 told Israeli viewers on 22 March 2026 that the plans for an American ground operation were ready and that 7,500 Marines were expected in the region within ten days. The forces he describes did arrive: the 31st and 11th Marine Expeditionary Units and the 82nd Airborne's brigade (The Buildup). Israeli television was describing an American landing, not an Israeli one; its own press reported Israeli infantry would not go (Israel Keeps Its Infantry Home).

Check it yourself​

Status: Donald Trump is alive.

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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