President Joe Biden delivered a dramatic address on Tuesday promising to stand with Israel and denouncing the ‘unadulterated evil’ of terrorist attacks who killed more than 1,000 people, including 14 Americans, at the weekend.
Biden’s remarks come three full days since he put out a short video following the initial attack Saturday. He has been criticized for a sluggish response to the crisis, hosting a barbecue for staff on Sunday and not appearing in public on Monday.
But he broke his silence with a speech dripping with anger at the horrors unleashed by Hamas terrorists and warned that U.S. citizens were also among civilians captured by Hamas gunmen.
‘You know there are moments in this life — I mean this literally — when a pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world,’ he said, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
‘The people of Israel, lived through one such moment this weekend.’
U.S. President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, makes remarks after speaking by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and senior security officials for a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel before delivering his speech
The president described the many atrocities committed at the hands of Hamas.
‘Parents butchered using their bodies to try to protect their children,’ he said.
‘Stomach turning reports of babies being killed. Entire families slain.
‘Young people massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace … to celebrate peace … women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies.’
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip on Tuesday with the fiercest air strikes in its 75-year-old conflict with the Palestinians, turning districts to dust despite a threat from Hamas militants to execute a captive for each home hit.
Biden addressed the nation after holding his third phone call in four days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A day earlier, the White House said it expected to fulfill additional security requests from Israel as quickly as possible.
The United States does not plan to put American military forces on the ground, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters immediately following Biden’s remarks that there are 20 Americans who remain missing. He noted that doesn’t mean they all have been captured by Hamas, and that they are just not accounted for.
People mourn at the graveside of Eden Guez, who was killed a festival that was attacked by Hamas gunmen that left at least 260 people dead, at her funeral in Ashkelon, in southern Israe
Rockets fired from the Gaza City (R) being intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence missile system (L) on October 10, 2023
Israel has called up an unprecedented 300,000 of its own reservists.
Biden and Netanyahu, despite differences on the way forward in the Middle East, have been thrust into a wartime partnership following the multipronged attack by Hamas militants from Gaza into Israel.
Israel’s embassy in Washington said the death toll from Hamas’ weekend attacks had surpassed 1,000, dwarfing all modern Islamist attacks on the West since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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