The death toll in the Israel-Hamas war continued to climb early Wednesday, the fifth day after the Palestinian militant group launched a massive, highly coordinated terror attack on Israel from the tiny Gaza Strip. The brutal attack has claimed more than 1,200 lives in Israel, including 14 Americans, and it led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare, “We are at war.”
President Biden called the Hamas attack “an act of sheer evil,” and said American citizens were also among the dozens of civilians and Israeli troops being held as hostages by Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and has long been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
More than 250 of the dead were Israelis who came under attack at the Supernova music festival, near the Gaza border, as militants swooped down on paragliders and opened fire on the crowd.
In remarks delivered Tuesday at the White House, Mr. Biden said the people of Israel experienced “pure, unadulterated evil” at the “bloody hands” of Hamas.
“We stand with Israel,” the president said, vowing to “make sure Israel has what is needed to take care of its citizens, take care of itself and respond to this attack. There’s no justification for terrorism. There’s no excuse.”
At least 900 people, including at least 140 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and at least 4,500 have been wounded.
