“We’ve had hundreds massacred, families wiped out in their beds in their homes, women brutally raped and murdered, over 100 kidnapped, including children,” Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Biden, according to a transcript released by the prime minister’s office. “They took dozens of children, bound them up, burned them and executed them. They beheaded soldiers. They mowed down these youngsters who came to a nature festival.”
Mr. Biden seemed to adopt some of the same language and stories when he arrived in the State Dining Room with Ms. Harris and Mr. Blinken shortly afterward.
“This was an act of sheer evil,” Mr. Biden said. “More than 1,000 civilians slaughtered — not just killed, slaughtered — in Israel, among them at least 14 American citizens killed. Parents butchered, using their bodies trying to protect their children, stomach-turning reports of babies being killed, entire families slain, young people massacred while attending a music festival to celebrate peace.”
The president made no effort to urge restraint from Israel as it responds. “Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right to respond, indeed has a duty to respond to these vicious attacks,” he said.
And he rejected suggestions that the attack was understandable, if not justified, given what critics consider to be Israel’s repression of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
“There’s no justification for terrorism,” he said flatly. “There’s no excuse. Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed, with no regard for who pays the price.”
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.
Peter Baker
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