American citizens are among those captured by Hamas terrorists, President Joe Biden confirmed on Tuesday, and Hamas has killed at least 14 Americans so far in their terror attacks against Israel.
Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Saturday, on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Pro-Palestinian terrorists have murdered more than 1,000 Israeli citizens and wounded thousands more.
Flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden said that the U.S. unequivocally stands with Israel, and will make sure the country can defend itself against the “hatred and violence” of Hamas terrorists.
The president failed to mention Hamas’s connection to Iran, which is the terrorist group’s primary financial backer and, according to the Wall Street Journal, was heavily involved in planning and providing the resources for the weekend attack.
The Hamas attack came weeks after the Biden administration unfroze $6 billion in Iranian funds being held in Qatari banks in exchange for the release of five American prisoners from Iranian custody. Members of the GOP have called on Biden to freeze the funds or re-issue them to Israel, pointing out that the funds, which the administration insists can only be used for humanitarian purposes, help free up the Iranian regime to further fund terror in the region.
When prompted at a press briefing on Tuesday, White House National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan told reporters, “We have not yet had $1 of that six billion spent, and I will leave it at that.”
After confirming that Hamas holds American hostages, Biden said that the U.S. will “share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts.”
“Because as president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world,” he said.
He did not directly urge Hamas to release U.S. hostages.
The families of four missing American citizens said on Tuesday that they “expect nothing less” than for Biden and Blinken to “bring the U.S. citizens back home safe and sound.” Hamas terrorists threatened on Monday to livestream civilian executions every time an Israeli bomb strike hits a Palestinian home without warning.
One of the suspected U.S. hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, attended the Supernova music festival, where Hamas slaughtered 260 civilians. He has not answered calls since then, his mother Rachel Goldberg said, but she knows that Hersh was “put on a pickup truck and driven away by Hamas.” Sagui Dekel-Chen, another U.S. citizen and a father of two with a third child on the way, went missing on Saturday morning.
“We are waiting for Sagui to come home,” his father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, said.
Biden decried Hamas’s “abhorrent” terrorism, adding that the U.S. would send ammunition and interceptors to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. When Congress returns to session, he added, Biden will ask Congress to fund Israeli defense efforts.
Police departments have increased security among Jewish communities to “identify and disrupt” any domestic threats, Biden said, omitting mention of the Pro-Palestinian organizations that held rallies this weekend in support of Hamas terror attacks.
The White House denounced members of Congress who do not back U.S. support for Israel, including representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.), who have both called for “an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation” in the region.
“We believe they are wrong, we believe they are repugnant, and we believe they are disgraceful,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “Our condemnation belongs squarely with terrorists who have brutally murdered, raped, and kidnapped hundreds of Israelis. There can be no equivocation about that. There are not two sides here.”