President Biden on Tuesday denounced the “unadulterated evil” of Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel, saying Washington will rush ammunition to the Israeli military, bolster U.S. defense forces in the region and beef up security around centers of Jewish life in the U.S.
In an address from the White House, Mr. Biden said at least 14 U.S. citizens have been killed in the attacks and Hamas is holding an unknown number of Americans captive in Gaza. A top Biden adviser said more than 20 Americans are missing, though it’s unclear how many are hostages.
“This is an act of sheer evil, more than 1,000 civilians slaughtered in Israel,” Mr. Biden said. “Israel has a right to respond, indeed has a duty to respond.”
The Israeli military has mobilized more than 300,000 security forces and is pounding Gaza with thousands of airstrikes as Hamas launches more rocket attacks. Israel Defense Forces are thought to be preparing for a ground attack in Gaza. The White House said the U.S. will not send any troops.
The Israeli military said more than 1,000 people have been killed in Israel since the Saturday attacks. In Gaza and the West Bank, more than 830 people have been killed, authorities said.
Mr. Biden, who spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday for the third time since the attacks, said the U.S. military is advising Israeli forces on operations to rescue hostages. Hamas has threatened to kill a hostage each time Israel bombs civilian targets in Gaza.
SEE ALSO: House resolution condemns Hamas’ ‘barbaric’ attack on Israel
Some lawmakers in Congress criticized the president for failing to devise a plan for evacuating Americans from Israel.
“It took Biden 3 days to address our nation,” Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, posted on X. “For those 3 days, Americans have been stranded in Israel without answers. 50+ of my constituents remain in Israel at this hour and Americans are being held hostage. Where’s the evacuation plan?”
The U.S. is resupplying Israel with interceptors and other equipment for its Iron Dome missile defense system, which has been busy knocking Hamas’ rockets out of the sky. U.S. military planes will soon arrive in Israel with supplies and weapons, the White House said.
The president said he will ask Congress for more “urgent” aid to fund “our partners,” a reference to Israel and Ukraine.
Congress is debating the administration’s request for $24 billion more for Ukraine as it repels Russian invaders. A stopgap bill to fund the government for 45 days did not include the aid. Advisers to the president wouldn’t say whether the proposed aid to Israel would be packaged with Ukraine funding when Congress returns to Washington next week.
Congressional Republicans are urging Mr. Biden to reverse his decision to free up $6 billion for Iran, which supports Hamas.
SEE ALSO: Pressure builds on Biden to refreeze $6 billion for Iran following attack on Israel
The issue is quickly becoming a rallying cry for Republicans. In a letter, 20 Republican senators urged the State Department to rescind the sanctions waivers allowing Iranian funds to be converted into euros and transferred to bank accounts in Qatar, part of a deal for a prisoner swap reached last month between Washington and Tehran.
Iran has a long history of economic and military support of the Palestinian terrorist group and has praised the Saturday attacks.
Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations and a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, urged the administration to shift funds from Iranian oil sales that had been held in overseas banks.
“Take the $6 billion from Biden’s ransom deal with Iran and give it to Israel to eradicate Hamas,” she said on social media.
The president did not mention Iran, its support for Hamas or the $6 billion. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said “not a dollar of that money has been spent” yet by Iran.
“I’ll leave it at that,” Mr. Sullivan said.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the president was ducking the Iran issue.
“14 Americans are dead, many are being held hostage, and Joe Biden is more focused on dodging questions on the $6 billion he released to Iran than providing leadership during this crisis,” she said. “From his disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal to now, Biden’s weakness and appeasement of Iran and Democrats’ anti-Israel, antisemitic rhetoric have emboldened our enemies.”
The U.S. Navy has moved a carrier group into the eastern Mediterranean. Mr. Sullivan said the move is not meant to augment Israeli military operations but to deter other nations that might try to broaden the conflict.
Asked how U.S. intelligence missed Hamas’ preparations for the attacks, Mr. Sullivan replied, “We did not see anything that suggested an attack of this type was going to unfold any more than the Israelis did.”
Mr. Biden compared Hamas’ atrocities to “the worst rampages of ISIS.”
“This is terrorism,” the president said. “We must be crystal clear. We stand with Israel. There’s no justification for terrorism.”
Republicans have accused Mr. Biden of taking a softer stand on the Palestinian Authority and Hamas than his predecessor, but the president used blunt terms to describe the terrorist attacks. He called the violence “stomach-turning” and spoke of “atrocities on an appalling scale.”
“People in Israel suffered pure unadulterated evil at the bloody hands of the terrorist organization Hamas, a group whose stated purpose for being is to kill Jews,” Mr. Biden said.
In their phone call, Mr. Netanyahu agreed with the president.
“We’ve never seen such savagery in the history of the state,” Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Biden, according to the prime minister’s office. “They’re even worse than ISIS, and we need to treat them as such.”
• Valerie Richardson, Tom Howell Jr. and Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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