Joe Biden says 14 Americans died in Israel during ‘act of sheer EVIL’ by Hamas terrorists

President Joe Biden delivered a dramatic speech Tuesday, denouncing the “unadulterated evil” of the terrorist attacks that killed more than 1,000 people, including 14 Americans, over the weekend.

He vowed the US would stand by Israel as it mourned the deadliest weekend in its history.

“You know there are times in this life – I mean that literally – when a pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed in this world,” he said, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“The people of Israel experienced such a moment this weekend.”

He had been criticized for a lackluster response to the crisis, holding a staff barbecue on Sunday and not appearing in public on Monday.

US President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, makes remarks after a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden joined Vice President Kamala Harris and senior security officials in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before delivering his speech

Israel pounded the Gaza Strip on Tuesday with the heaviest airstrikes in its 75-year conflict with the Palestinians, reducing the neighborhoods to dust despite a threat by Hamas militants to execute a prisoner for every strike at home.

Biden spoke to the nation after his third phone call in four days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A day earlier, the White House said it expected to fulfill additional security requests from Israel as soon as possible.

The United States has no plans to put American military forces on the ground, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Israel has called up an unprecedented 300,000 of its reservists.

Biden and Netanyahu, despite differences on the way forward in the Middle East, have been thrust into a wartime partnership following the multi-pronged attack by Hamas militants from Gaza into Israel.

Israel’s embassy in Washington said the death toll from the weekend’s Hamas attacks surpassed 1,000, ranking second to all modern Islamist attacks in the West since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

People mourn at the grave of Eden Guez, who was killed in a festival attack by Hamas gunmen that left at least 260 people dead, at her funeral in Ashkelon, southern Israel

Rockets fired from Gaza City (R) are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system (L) on October 10, 2023