“As president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world,” Biden said. “Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right to respond and indeed has a duty to respond to these vicious attacks.”
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that the administration could not confirm the number of hostages but that at least 20 Americans were missing. Sullivan stressed that did not necessarily mean there were 20 or more U.S. hostages.
Overall, between 100 and 150 people are being held in Gaza, according to an Israeli official, and Hamas has threatened to execute civilian hostages if Israeli airstrikes continue.
Biden, delivering remarks from the White House, also spoke in vivid terms about the assault itself. “There are moments in this life when pure unadulterated evil is unleashed in this world,” he said, referring to “stomach-turning reports of babies being killed” and “women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies.”
The president’s remarks came three days after Palestinian gunmen from Hamas infiltrated Israel and launched the deadliest attack in the country since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The surprise attacks, during which Hamas gunmen hunted civilians in their homes and cars throughout border areas, killed at least 900 people and wounded 2,700 in Israel.
The onslaught has also sparked a major retaliatory bombing campaign by Israel in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 750 people, Palestinian authorities said.
Israel said Tuesday that it had regained control of its border with Gaza and was preparing to launch its own military initiative. Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss of the Israeli 98th Division said that the military is now “moving into the offensive … to change the reality within Gaza to prevent such a thing from happening again.”
That suggests a multiday assault, potentially the first full-scale Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in almost a decade. While Israel’s stated goal is to cripple Hamas, civilians in Gaza are likely to find themselves in harm’s way.
Biden said his administration had surged additional military assistance to Israel, including ammunition and interceptors to replenish the Iron Dome missile defense shield.
He added that when Congress returns to Washington, he will ask lawmakers to quickly approve military aid for Israel. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene next week. The House is struggling to choose a new speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted last week, and it is not clear whether the chamber can take official actions — like approving military aid — until a successor is selected.
Biden sought to draw a distinction between Hamas as a terrorist organization and ordinary Palestinians who are seeking an independent state, arguing that Hamas “does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity, self-determination. Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people.”
Biden added: “They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.” He compared Hamas’s tactics to those of the Islamic State, the terrorist group that has launched brazen attacks in the Middle East and Europe and beheaded captives.
The president spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Tuesday, and he said he told Netanyahu that Israel’s response should be “swift, decisive and overwhelming.” But he also stressed that democracies like Israel and the United States uphold the laws of war and do not target civilians.
“Terrorists purposely target civilians,” Biden said. “It matters. There’s a difference.”
U.S. officials are worried that the violence could escalate into a wider war in the Middle East, and Biden also reiterated his warning that other actors in the region that are hostile to Israel should not see this as a moment of vulnerability and jump into the conflict. “For anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation, I have one word: Don’t. Don’t,” the president said. “Our hearts may be broken, but our resolve is clear.”
Israel earlier this week announced a full siege of Gaza, cutting off food, electricity and fuel in the densely populated enclave of 2 million people, where conditions are already difficult because of a years-long Israeli blockade. The U.N. high commissioner for human rights warned Tuesday that the Gaza siege is a violation of international law.
Biden and Vice President Harris met with their national security teams Tuesday, the White House said, and both were on the call with Netanyahu. Biden said he had spoken to Netanyahu three times since Saturday.
Biden’s relationship with the Israeli leader has at times been chilly. Netanyahu has not shied away from signaling a marked preference for Republicans when it comes to American electoral politics. Biden, for his part, has criticized the prime minister’s planned overhaul of his country’s judicial system, a move that has prompted massive demonstrations by Israelis who consider it anti-democratic.
But in the weeks before the Hamas attacks, Biden extended a long-awaited invitation to Netanyahu to meet with him at the White House, suggesting a potential thaw. And the crisis seems to have drawn the two leaders closer.
“In this moment we must be crystal clear,” Biden said. “We stand with Israel.”
