The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has reaffirmed his unconditional support for Israel after the “sickening atrocities” committed by Hamas in Israeli territory last Saturday, with a partial toll of 900 dead. “We must be crystal clear at this moment: we are with Israel,” said the Democratic president in a speech to the nation, supporting the right of Israelis to defend themselves and respond after the massacres perpetrated in the south of the country.
Flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden has shown his willingness to send additional aid to the conflict zone after holding a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We will ensure that Israel has sufficient resources to defend itself,” he has indicated, for which he hopes to have the support of a Congress paralyzed at this moment after the departure of the leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
In addition, the president has confirmed the death of 14 Americans, three more than previously known, and an unknown number of those kidnapped by radical Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip. “This is terrorism,” he has noted, describing the killings of entire families, the rapes perpetrated by attackers and the kidnapping of Holocaust survivors in a “violation of any code of human morality”; It is “pure, unadulterated evil,” he has hammered home.
As expected, Biden has not called for a cessation of hostilities, nor has he advised that Israeli forces stop the attacks in the Gaza Strip that have already left almost a thousand dead in three days of bombing. In the previous conversation with Netanyahu he discussed the possible incursion of Israeli troops into Palestinian territory. “We are not urging that they be restricted right now,” said a US government official quoted by CNN in relation to the call.
For Biden, Hamas has shown no interest in defending the interests of the Palestinian people, using civilians “as human shields.” The brutality of the massacre perpetrated by radical Islamists – described as “ISIS-style” carnage – appears to have left the former senator little room for maneuver when it came to calling for a ceasefire. In the background are the 14 American deaths caused by the crisis and which could increase. Adrienne Neta, 66, is one of them. Her eldest son, Nahar Neta, explained in a press conference Tuesday that her mother was on the phone with her minutes before he disappeared.
“Both my brother and sister were talking to her when the terrorists broke into her house and we heard some screams. That was our last contact with her,” Neta said. “Our hope, somewhat ridiculous at this point, is that she is kidnapped and not dead in the kibbutz where we grew up,” he said through tears, asking Blinken, head of US diplomacy, to bring back American citizens “healthy.” and saved. We expect nothing less.”
Rachel Goldberg also has not heard from her 23-year-old son, Hersch Golberg-Polin, since Saturday. It is known that she was at the music festival in the south of the country where hundreds of young people died on Saturday, but she has not received texts or communications from him since then. The family moved to Jerusalem in 2008 from California.
Jake Sullivan, White House security advisor, put the number of Americans missing after the attacks at around twenty. “We don’t know how many of them are kidnapped,” he said, in an unprecedented crisis in the Middle East region.