Biden compares Hamas attack on Israel to the Holocaust and warns Iran

Joe Biden condemned the Hamas attack on Israel over the weekend as “the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust,” while Israeli planes continued to strike the Gaza Strip, which is facing severe shortages of medical supplies, according to the World Health Organization.

According to The Guardian, the US president told Jewish leaders gathered at the White House on Wednesday: “This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty – not just hatred, but pure cruelty – against the Jewish people.”

“Silence is complicity,” Biden said. “I refuse to remain silent.” He said he had spoken with Benjamin Netanyahu again and that the US was “stepping up” additional military assistance to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The US President added that the deployment of US warships and aircraft closer to Israel should be seen as a signal to Iran, which supports the Islamist groups Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah. “We’ve made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful,” Biden said.

At about 4:30 a.m. Thursday, the Israeli military said it was carrying out a “large-scale attack” on Hamas-owned facilities in Gaza. Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive in Gaza in the coming days in response to Saturday’s Hamas attacks, which are known to have killed 1,200 Israelis. Israel believes Hamas is holding about 150 Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Nebal Farsah, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, said the latest Israeli strikes on Gaza were continuous compared to previous attacks. “Now we don’t have a single free minute. That is why the number of victims continues to rise,” he said.

Gaza’s only power plant has run out of fuel amid a tightening siege, causing particular concern among the enclave’s hospitals. “Soon all services vital to the survival of the population, including hospitals, will cease to function,” said the Mezan human rights center in Gaza.

Even in normal times, Gaza’s hospitals are poorly supplied, says Richard Brennan, regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO). Now there is a shortage of everything from bandages to intravenous fluids, beds to basic medicines. “It’s almost as bad as it sounds,” Brennan said. – This is not just damage, destruction. It’s all about this psychological pressure. Constant shelling… losing our colleagues.”

The death toll in Gaza has risen to 1,200, with about 5,600 injured, Palestinian media reported, citing Gaza’s health ministry.

The number of Gazans displaced by the war has risen to 338,000, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, with about 65% seeking safety in shelters or schools. The enclave’s population is 2.3 million.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to the Middle East to demonstrate Washington’s continued support for Israel, secure the release of hostages, including Americans, and prevent the outbreak of a wider war.

Blinken was expected to arrive in Israel on Thursday and also visit Jordan. Palestinian officials said he would meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Biden spoke after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an emergency wartime government, joined by Benny Gantz, a senior opposition figure and former defense minister.

Netanyahu, Gantz and Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, are forming a “war cabinet” as Israeli troops continue to build up forces in the south in preparation for an expected ground invasion.

In a televised address late Wednesday, Netanyahu described the atrocities that took place during weekend attacks by militants who he said shot children in the head, burned people alive, raped women and beheaded soldiers. “Every Hamas member is dead,” he said. “We will crush and destroy him.”

Benny Gantz told Israeli citizens that the newly formed government was “united” and ready to “wipe this thing called Hamas off the face of the earth.”

Biden said he spoke with Netanyahu again on Wednesday, their fourth conversation in recent days, and told him that Israel must follow the rules of war in its response against Hamas.

The number of American citizens known to have been killed in the Hamas attack has risen to 22, the State Department said, with at least 17 more Americans still missing.

The attack raised questions about whether Iran, Hamas’ main backer, played a role. But the US has information that suggests senior Iranian government officials were caught off guard by the multi-pronged attack, according to a US official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

This intelligence informed White House officials who publicly stated that they had not yet seen evidence of direct Iranian involvement in planning or executing the Hamas attack. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday: “We haven’t seen anything that suggests they specifically reduced inspections to support this series of attacks or that they were involved in the preparation. And obviously that took a lot of preparation on the part of these terrorists,” Kirby said, although he added that the US will continue to look at the intelligence “and see if it leads us to different conclusions.”

The chairman of the powerful US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, said Israel received warning from Egypt of possible violence three days before Hamas surprised Israeli forces in a large-scale attack.