Biden condemns 'sheer evil' of Hamas attack on Israel

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 Visibly angry and emotional, U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the attacks by Hamas.

00:06 He described the atrocities as "sheer evil" and said Washington is rushing more military

00:12 equipment to the region.

00:13 The U.S. is Israel's closest ally.

00:16 And Biden also warned other nations to stay out of the conflict.

00:20 "We're going to continue to stand united, supporting the people of Israel who are suffering

00:26 unspeakable losses and opposing the hatred and violence of terrorism.

00:33 We're surging additional military assistance, including ammunition and interceptors, to

00:37 replenish Iron Dome.

00:39 We're going to make sure that Israel does not run out of these critical assets to defend

00:45 its cities and its citizens."

00:48 Our correspondent in Washington, Frazier Jackson, with more on Biden's address.

00:53 Yes, so this was the first time we've seen Joe Biden in a couple of days.

00:57 We hadn't seen him since that speech on Saturday in the immediate aftermath of the rocket attack

01:02 on southern Israel.

01:03 He'd actually come under some criticism for being missing for a couple of days out of

01:08 the public eye.

01:09 The White House had pushed back on that, saying that he was working very hard and calling

01:14 with lots of different people.

01:16 He'd been on dozens of calls with regional allies, European allies, to try to coordinate

01:21 some kind of response.

01:23 When we did see him yesterday, sorry, earlier today, it was a very emotional speech.

01:29 He called the attacks abhorrent and used a lot of vivid imagery and called also the attacks,

01:36 the thing that started to me was him calling them in violation of every human morality

01:42 code.

01:43 Now, he likened the attacks to the Islamic State as well, but moved on from that and

01:50 swiftly moved on to the support of Israel, what the US is offering to Israel.

01:55 They obviously have sent that aircraft carrier, which is now there in the eastern part of

02:01 the Mediterranean.

02:02 They've also, Israel received the first shipment of US arms that they had already purchased.

02:09 The rest of, I'm told, of their orders that are on backlog are being expedited by the

02:13 Department of Defense.

02:16 He also sent a message to other regional players in any other country or organization that

02:21 was looking to maybe take advantage of this moment with one simple word, don't.

02:26 He repeated that numerous times and that is obviously what that aircraft carrier and its

02:31 strike group is there to do, is to act as a deterrent.

02:34 The other main thing that came out of it for Americans, this speech, was the death toll.

02:39 We found out that the death toll had gone up from 11 to now 14 Americans confirmed dead

02:45 in these attacks.

02:46 Also, we got an update on the hostage situation.

02:49 Up until this point, the White House and the National Security Council weren't really sure

02:53 how many Americans were caught up in this.

02:56 And now, Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, after the President's speech, confirmed

03:02 to the press that at least 20 Americans are missing.

03:07 Now, he didn't say how many of those were taken hostage, but at least 20 at the moment

03:11 are unaccounted for.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended