WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli leaders Thursday that “we will always be there by your side” as the White House confirmed at least 27 Americans had been murdered by the Hamas terror group.
Blinken said after meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was shown photos of butchered and burned babies among the more than 1,300 slain in Saturday’s attack on southern Israel from Gaza.
Blinken likened Hamas’ massacres to Nazi war atrocities during a Tel Aviv press conference alongside Netanyahu, who called on countries to cease cooperation with Hamas — whose political leader, Khaled Mashal, resides in Qatar.
“I come before you, not only as the United States secretary of state, but also as a Jew,” Blinken told the Israeli leader.
“My grandfather, Maurice Blinken, fled pogroms in Russia. My stepfather, Samuel Pisar, survived concentration camps — Auschwitz, Dachau, Majdanek. So, prime minister, I understand on a personal level the harrowing echoes that Hamas’ massacres have carried for Israeli Jews — indeed, for Jews everywhere.”
About 150 people, including some US citizens, are feared to be held hostage in Gaza, and a spokesman for Hamas threatened Monday to murder them on camera in response to Israeli airstrikes.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken giving remarks at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on October 12, 2023. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool
Blinken speaking with Israeli citizens at a donation center for victims of the Hamas terror attacks. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday at the regular White House briefing that 14 Americans remain missing and that a “handful” are believed to be among the captives.
“The message that I bring Israel is this: You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourself, but as long as America exists, you will never, ever have to. We will always be there by your side,” Blinken said in Tel Aviv.
“We’re delivering on our word, supplying ammunition and interceptors to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome, alongside other defense materiel. The first shipments of US military support have already arrived in Israel and more is on the way.”
Netanyahu’s office posted three graphic images of murdered children to X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday with the admonition: “These are horrifying photos of babies murdered and burned by the Hamas monsters. Hamas is inhuman. Hamas is ISIS.”
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce, “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Gaza Health Ministry — which is controlled by Hamas — reported at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
Blinken addressed the images of dead children during a solo press conference following his meetings with Netanyahu.
The Israeli government showed him images of “a baby, an infant riddled with bullets, soldiers beheaded, young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms,” Blinken told reporters.
“I could go on, but it’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. You can’t help but imagine yourself, your family, your loved ones, your friends in that situation.”
President Biden stirred confusion Wednesday by telling Jewish leaders that he had seen “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”
Netanyahu has likened Hamas to ISIS after the attacks. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, poolThe White House backtracked late in the day and said Biden had not seen any such photos.
At least two Israeli eyewitnesses told media outlets that they had seen decapitated children among the dead, but precise details, such as the number of victims murdered in that manner, remain unclear.
Blinken side-stepped that confusion when pressed by a journalist, saying, “When it comes to the photographs, the videos — I described what I saw today. That doesn’t mean it’s the entire universe.”
Netanyahu called Thursday for stronger international condemnation of Hamas in response to the slaughter of Israel’s citizens.
“Hamas is ISIS and just as ISIS was crushed, so too will Hamas be crushed. And Hamas to be treated exactly the way ISIS was treated,” Netanyahu said.
Blinken told Netanyahu that the US “will always be there by your side” following the attacks. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool“They should be spit out from the community of nations. No leader should meet them, no country should harbor them, and those that do should be sanctioned.”
Blinken will travel to regional Arab countries following his stop in Israel, including to Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — as the Biden administration faces pressure to refreeze $6 billion in assets belonging to Iran, which reportedly aided the Hamas incursion.
The funds are administered by Qatar and were approved by Biden for Iranian purchases of food and medicine in August in exchange for the release of five detained US citizens.
