The U.S. is sending additional warships filled with thousands more Marines to the Middle East this weekend as the U.S. and Israel continue escalating their war on Iran, despite President Donald Trump having repeatedly and dubiously claimed that the U.S. has already effectively won the war.

U.S. officials told news outlets of the additional deployments, saying that roughly 2,000 to 2,500 Marines from the USS Boxer amphibious ready group and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are shipping out from San Diego.

The troop deployment comes after the Pentagon sent up to 5,000 additional troops from their station in Japan to the region.

They will join the roughly 50,000 troops that the U.S. already has in the Middle East as the war enters a new phase this week, with both sides now targeting oil and gas infrastructure after the U.S. and Israel carried out a strike on a key natural gas field in Iran on Wednesday.

The continued troop buildup is a sign of further escalation of the war by the U.S. The White House has not confirmed or denied reports that the Trump administration is considering a ground occupation of Iran’s Kharg Island, a key site for Iran’s military and oil exports, supposedly in hopes of coercing Iran into reopening passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

The administration has also refused to say whether it is planning to deploy troops on the ground in Iran.

“There has been no decision to send ground troops at this time, but President Trump wisely keeps all options at his disposal,” a White House official told Reuters on Thursday. Trump told reporters on Thursday that he is “not putting troops anywhere,” but that, “if I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference on Thursday that the U.S. and Israel can’t achieve their goals of overthrowing Iran’s government without a ground invasion. “You can do a lot of things from the air,” he said, “but there has to be a ground component, as well.”

A ground invasion would be disastrous for the U.S., the Iranian people, and global markets, analysts say.

“I think any attempt to seize [Kharg] island would be close to a suicide mission,” said former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Harrison Mann in an interview with Democracy Now!.

“If you drop troops on that island, they could really end up being trapped there, which would really play into the hands of the Iranian government. And I think a U.S. mass casualty event or even a de facto hostage situation would be much more valuable to Iran’s surviving leaders than the oil terminal that the operation would purportedly capture,” Mann said.

The seizure of the island, meanwhile, could further jack up oil and gas prices while causing widespread pain to people in Iran. Prior to the war, the island was responsible for 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports, serving as a key provider of oil for the globe and an important revenue source for the country that has already been squeezed by decades of U.S. sanctions.

A ground invasion would be extremely unpopular with the public, in a war that has already hit historic lows in terms of public opinion. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday found that 65 percent of Americans believe Trump will launch a large-scale ground invasion — but that a mere 7 percent of Americans support the idea. Fifty-five percent of Americans said they don’t support the idea, amounting to a 48-point margin.

Meanwhile, polling by Data for Progress for the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project and Demand Progress found that Americans overwhelmingly believe that Israel, not the U.S., is the primary beneficiary of the war. When asked which state the war benefits more, 56 percent of respondents said that it benefits Israel more, and only 29 percent said the U.S. — a 27-point margin.

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