President Biden says he’s seen photos supporting Israeli descriptions of Hamas beheading infants during its kibbutz massacres.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he’d seen “confirmed pictures” that beheaded children were among the many victims of the Hamas terrorists who murdered hundreds of civilians in Israeli border towns this weekend. The White House later issued a statement to clarify his remarks.
The reports of Hamas beheading infants came as the world was already grappling with the extent of the crimes being described in Israel’s southern kibbutz communities, which bore the brunt of the wave of 1,500 terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7.
During a roundtable with Jewish community leaders at the White House on Wednesday, President Biden emphasized the importance of Americans understanding the nature of the unfolding events.
“It matters that Americans see what’s happening. I’ve been doing this [for] a long time. I never really thought that I would see … have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” the president said.
White House national security aides have said that they have not had access to the images.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who joined President Biden at the roundtable alongside other White House officials, told the Washington Examiner that while he hadn’t personally seen the beheading photos, he trusted the president’s assertion of their existence.
The White House later walked back President Biden’s comments, telling the Washington Post that neither President Biden nor U.S. officials have seen photos nor independently verified the reports coming out of Israel. Instead, the president had based his confirmation of the atrocities on allegations put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Tal Heinrich, The Post said.
The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for further comment.
Origin of Reports
On Tuesday, Israeli Major General Itai Veruv told CNN that babies and toddlers had been found among the butchered in Kfar Aza kibbutz, a small community near Israeli’s southern border with Gaza. Fighting in the kibbutz had only been brought under control by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that morning.
He described, “They cut head off the people,” and that the IDF was going house to house to recover the dead in body bags, which were then loaded onto a truck.
“They kill babies in front of the parents, and then kill the parents; they kill parents and we found babies in between the dogs and the family they killed before him,” he said.
However, there has been confusion regarding the statements whether babies were among those decapitated, with some media outlets reporting that they had been unable to independently verify whether babies were among those beheaded.
