The UK government announced on Saturday that it will deploy additional military personnel to the Middle East due to heightened tensions following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran by the Israelis.

"Military personnel are also in the process of deploying to the region to provide Embassies with operational support to help British nationals," the government said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received a report of a distress signal from a vessel proceeding 170 nautical miles (195 miles) southwest of the Yemeni port of Aden.

UKMTO WARNING INCIDENT 104

ATTACK

Warnings - 2024 (https://t.co/5An1YH0JyE)#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/MhwJV3dyWj

— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) August 3, 2024

This follows reports from the previous day that Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant and UK counterpart John Healey discussed plans to create a coalition to safeguard "Israel" from Iran and its allies following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Hajj Mohsein.

In the aftermath of the assassinations, Iran's UN envoy Saeed Iravani said that Haniyeh's death "would not have happened without an American green light and intelligence support to carry out the operation." 

Yet according to National Security reporter at The Washington Times Dan Boylan, Washington was unaware of "Israel's" plans to kill Haniyeh. He further claimed that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Pentagon were kept in the dark about the operation.

Read more: US, 'Israel' prepare for Iran retaliation expected in few days: Axios