The White House accused Hamas of “genocidal intentions” against Israel, as it pushed back against criticism of the IDF’s military campaign in Gaza and its high Palestinian civilian death toll.
“Hamas actually does have genocidal intentions against the people of Israel. They would like to see it wiped off the map, they said so on purpose,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.
“That is what is at stake here,” he stressed.
He spoke amid sharp criticism for US President Joe Biden’s support of Israeli actions in the Gaza war, which Hamas asserts has cost over 10,000 Palestinians lives, including those of over 4,000 children.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that thousands of those killed were military combatants but has not provided an actual death count.
US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who is of Palestinian descent, has accused Biden of supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people in a video she posted on her X account.
The video included chants from a pro-Palestinian rally that called for the destruction of the state of Israel through the chant, “from the river to the sea.”
Kirby, in defending Israel’s military campaign, acknowledged the painful reality of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza.
“We are also keeping in our prayers, this one month in, the many thousands of innocent Palestinians who have been killed in the conflict since October 7th and the many more who are injured and wounded,” he said.
Israel not targeting civilians
He rejected, however, accusations that Israeli actions in Gaza were solely aimed at killing innocent people. He referenced in that defense, Hamas’ killing of over 1,400 people and its seizure of over 240 people hostage when it infiltrated southern Israel on October 7.
“We ought not to forget what happened one month ago, 1,400 people slaughtered in their homes [and] at a music festival,” Kirby said.
“When Hamas decided to conduct operations, it was with the intent of killing people,” he stressed, as he underscored the extent to which the terror group used civilians as human shields.
“When you are fighting in urban warfare you have to make tough choices about your targets,” he said.
“We are going to keep urging them to be as discriminate and careful as possible,” he said.
But Israel, he said, “has a right and responsibility to defend itself” agaisnt “what was clearly an existential threat to their society and their people.”
The US is “going to continue to make sure that they have the tools and the capabilities that they need” to do so, he said.