During a roundtable with Jewish community leaders on the administration’s efforts to provide support for Israel, Biden stressed the assistance that the US is providing, adding that he’s been frequently speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US is “surging additional military assistance to the Israeli Defense Force including ammunition, interceptors to replenish the Iron Dome, we moved the US carrier fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and are sending more fighter jets there, to that region, and made it clear, made it clear to the Iranians – be careful”, Biden continued.
In his remarks, Biden also addressed reports of the atrocities committed by Hamas.
“It matters that Americans see what’s happening – I mean, I have been doing this a long time, I never really thought that I would see it and have confirmed pictures of terrorist beheading children,” Biden said.
Hamas has denied that its militants beheaded children and attacked women when it launched a large-scale surprise attack on Israel last Saturday that left nearly 1,200 people dead.
Biden pledged the full force of his administration’s commitment to rescuing hostages in Hamas custody, telling the group that while “we’re working on every aspect of the hostage crisis in Israel”, if he relayed in detail what steps the administration was taking, “I wouldn’t be able to get them home”.
“Folks, there’s a lot we’re doing — a lot we’re doing, I have not given up hope of bringing these folks home,” he continued, adding, “But the idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre, so I hope you understand how bizarre I think it would be to try to answer that question.”
On Monday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said that the Islamic Republic was “not involved in Palestine’s response,” referring to the Hamas attack.
“It is taken solely by Palestine itself,” it stressed.
The United States has collected specific intelligence that suggests senior Iranian government officials were caught by surprise by Saturday’s attack, according to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence.
The existence of the intelligence has cast doubt on the idea that Iran was directly involved in the planning, resourcing or approving of the operation, the sources said.
