WASHINGTON — President Biden said Wednesday he has seen “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children” in southern Israel following reports that up to 40 babies were butchered over the weekend near the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip — but the White House later walked back the commander-in-chief’s claim.

“I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children. I never thought I’d ever — anyway,” Biden, 80, told leaders of Jewish groups at the White House on Wednesday.

But neither the president nor US officials have seen images or heard independently confirmed reports of beheaded children, a White House spokesperson later clarified, according to the Washington Post. 

The White House says Biden based his remark on claims made by a spokesman for Israel’s prime minister and media reports coming out of the Jewish state.

The sickening reports emerged Tuesday as the Israeli military offered journalists tours of areas ravaged by Hamas’ Saturday morning surprise attack, which left more than 1,200 civilians and Israeli troops dead and about 150 believed abducted — with at least 22 Americans dead and 17 others still unaccounted for.

A senior White House national security aide told reporters immediately following the event that he had not seen the images to which Biden was referring.

A different White House official directed The Post to comments by Tal Heinrich, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told CNN Wednesday that babies and toddlers were found “decapitated” in the community of Kfar Aza.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the horrifying report in a video posted to social media Thursday.

Meanwhile, Yossi Landau, an official with Israel’s volunteer civilian emergency response organization Zaka, told CBS News he personally saw the bodies of children and babies who were beheaded.

“I saw a lot more that cannot be described for now, because it’s very hard to describe,” he said.

Nicole Zedek, a TV reporter for Tel Aviv-based i24NEWS, first reported the child beheading allegations Tuesday and said in a radio interview Wednesday that she’s appalled by initial public skepticism.

“I mean, babies’ heads cut off. That’s what they encountered when they came there. So as horrible as it is and I wish that it wasn’t true,” Zedek said.

A revolting image circulated online by the IDF on Wednesday depicted an Israeli child’s bloodstained mattress with a streak of blood spatter on the wall and a gush of red coating the footboard.

Biden said he wouldn’t take any questions from reporters at the event — but pre-emptively answered one that he said that he expected to be shouted about his efforts to bring home the unknown number of US captives taken to Gaza.

“If I told you, I wouldn’t be able to get them home,” Biden said.

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.

“Folks, there’s a lot we’re doing … I haven’t given up hope of bringing these folks home.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at the regular White House briefing Wednesday that the number of Americans who “we believe is held hostage is very small — is very small, like less than a handful. But that could change over time.”

Biden has ducked press questions in other venues since Hamas’ stunning attack on Israel. He is facing mounting bipartisan calls from Congress to reverse his decision to authorize the release of $6 billion to Iran, which reportedly helped plot the attack.