Joe Biden Condemns Hamas “Act Of Sheer Evil” In Attacks On Israel, Says Americans Among Hostages; Journalists Describe Scene Of Massacre At Kibbutz

President Joe Biden said today that the Hamas attack on Israel was “an act of sheer evil,” sternly describing horrific reports of the terrorists’ brutality in targeting Jewish men, women, children and babies.

In remarks carrried across cable and broadcast networks Monday, Biden cited “stomach turning reports of babies being killed, entire families slain. Young people massacred while attending a music festival to celebrate peace. Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies.”

More from Deadline

• Wife Of Israeli Filmmaker Murdered At Kfar Aza Kibbutz Details How He Died Trying To Save Their Family & Says She Will Now Try To Retrieve His Sperm To "Continue Their Family"

• European Commissioner Follows Israel-Hamas Conflict Disinformation Warning To Elon Musk With Letter To Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

• DGA Joins Hollywood Film & TV Studio MRC In Condemning Attack On Israel - Update

Coming off a telephone call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today, a stern Biden also said that the “blood thirstiness brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS. This is terrorism.”

“We must be crystal clear: We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel. We will make sure it has what it needs to take care of its citizens, to defend itself, to respond to this attack,” he said. He said that Israel “has a right to respond, and indeed has a duty to respond, to this vicious attacks.”

Biden said that at least 14 Americans were among those killed in the attacks, and U.S. citizens are among those being held hostage.

“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,” Biden said. “They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.”

In recent days, the major networks all dispatched reporting teams on the ground in Israel, joining with any staffers they had in place in Tel Aviv. But some of the domestic side coverage has differed, as CNN and MSNBC have focused on the Biden administration response while Fox News has highlighted the administration’s initiatives with Tehran. Just before the president spoke, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called for reversing the administration’s Iran policy, saying that the administration is “overmatched by events.”

Biden, however, called for unity amid the crisis.

“We now know that American citizens are among those being held by Hamas,” adding that he is directing “my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with an advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts.”

He also said that the U.S. has “enhanced our military force” posture in the region. moving the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean.

The president added that the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are working with state and local law enforcement and Jewish community partners to identify and disrupt domestic threats. “This a moment for the United States to come together, to grieve with those who are mourning,” he said.

The cable networks stayed on White House coverage after Biden’s remarks for a White House daily briefing, where National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was asked if U.S. military forces will be directly involved in the situation. “At this point that is not something that is under planning,” he replied, but noted that American “experts” will be aiding the Israelis if asked. He said that he believed that there were 20 or more Americans that were missing, but stressed that they do not know the number of American hostages at this time.

Meanwhile, correspondents continue to face uncertain security situations as they report from near the border with Gaza. On ABC’s The View, Matt Gutman was delivering a live report from Sderot when he was told to leave the area because of a “security incident.”

Journalists also grappled with describing incidents of Hamas terrorists’ brutality. On CNN, Nic Robertson reported from a kibbutz at Kfar Aza near the border with Gaza, describing the scene.

Robertson said that “there were so many murdered members of this kibbutz — men, women, children. Hands bound. Shot. Executed. Heads cut off.”

Later on CNN, Robertson said that he and other journalists were given a tour of the area by an Israeli general following a 48 hour firefight to take back control. The general described ISIS-style executions of residents, Robertson said, and “he said very clearly that Hamas was cutting the heads off of people.”

“They killed babies in front of their parents and then killed the parents,” the general told CNN.

Robertson said that he saw “a team in forensic white suits, taking the dead in body bags and loading them into a van. … There were a lot of Hamas fighters lying where they had been killed in the firefight.”

On Monday night, Robertson paused and choked up for a bit on air as he recounted another instance of brutality, at the site of a music festival where 260 bodies reportedly were recovered following the Hamas attack. Robertson described the scene of the carnage, including a shelter where some of the festival goers sought refuge, only to be shot by Hamas terrorists. “Hamas had gone in there with guns and quite literally shot them in calculated, cold blood as they were cowering there on the floor,” he said, describing the smell of blood. “The blood’s on the wall and the blood’s on the ceiling,and the bullet holes are in the concrete wall,” he said.

The U.S. networks have had some limited images of the scene in Gaza, where Israel has hit with a barrage of missiles since the surprise Hamas attack. But U.S. journalists are restricted from entering the area, where there is some expectation that Israel will launch a ground attack, and one reporter told Deadline he doubts that situation will change given the security situation and hostages being held there. A Palestinian journalist for the BBC, Rushdi Abualouf, posted images of destruction in the southern neighborhood of Gaza City, describing the scene “like an earthquake.” The Committee to Protect Journalists said that three Palestinian journalists have been killed, one was injured and two are missing.

Reporters at the scenes of the bloodshed have been doing so with little rest. Fox News’ Trey Yingst, for example, has been reporting for 63 of the past 72 hours.

Best of Deadline

• SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreements: Full List Of Movies And TV Series

• Film Festival Calendar Listings For 2023

• 2023 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.