JERUSALEM/TEL AVIV/BRUSSELS, Oct 12 (Reuters) – The Israeli government showed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO defense ministers on Thursday graphic images of dead children and civilians. , said they were killed by the Palestinian organization Hamas as it expanded its support. response.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also released photos on social media of the bodies of a dead infant and a child in a pool of blood, adding to global outrage against Gaza militants over Saturday’s attack. It is seen as part of the promotion.
Blinken, who arrived in Tel Aviv early Thursday, told reporters he was shown photos and videos of bullet-riddled babies, decapitated soldiers and young men burned alive in cars and hideouts.
“This is depravity in the worst sense imaginable,” Blinken told a news conference. “A picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures may be worth a million words.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu made the move after Hamas attacked a defenseless Israeli community on Saturday, killing more than 1,300 people and making it the deadliest attack by Palestinian militants since the founding of Israel in 1948. I vowed to annihilate it.
The Israeli Air Force has launched heavy bombing of the Gaza Strip over the past five days and is amassing tens of thousands of troops along the border ahead of a possible ground invasion.
In Israel, the country’s military commander, Lt. Gen. Helzi Halevi, said Thursday that “now is the time for war.”
Gaza authorities have announced that more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including children, have been killed and more than 6,000 injured. A land invasion into a densely populated area could cause even more damage.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant played a video of the horrific Hamas attack to ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“Children were tied up and shot. I repeat, children, tied up and shot,” he told fellow ministers via video link, according to a speech sent to Reuters.
“Horrifying photo”
In a message on the social media site X, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published “horrific photos of infants murdered and burned by Hamas monsters.”
“Hamas is inhumane. Hamas is ISIS,” he added, comparing the Palestinian group to the Islamic State, notorious for its brutality and brutal execution videos.
The video streamed to NATO included images of the dead infant. The footage was not released to the public, but was later seen by Reuters in Jerusalem. Reuters could not independently verify the materials.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters: “They were horrifying pictures of the attack and the victims of the attack,” and “confirmed the brutality of the attack.”
“The plan was to target Gaza military teams and fight only the occupation forces,” Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri said in a statement released by Hamas.
But the White House said there was no reason to doubt the authenticity of the images. Authenticated video footage and eyewitness accounts depict Hamas ground attacks and barrages of rocket fire that tore the community apart.
The video presented to NATO, which appears to be a combination of social media and unidentified phone videos published by Hamas, shows the bodies of dozens of dead civilians and military uniforms with heads missing. The body of an Israeli soldier wearing a hoodie was shown.
There were no images suggesting the militants beheaded the infant, but the particularly explosive accusation first surfaced in Israeli media and was first confirmed by Israeli authorities.
US President Joseph Biden suggested on Wednesday that he had seen footage of children being beheaded by gunmen. The White House later clarified that U.S. officials had not seen any of this evidence.
Prime Minister Netanyahu did not repeat the Prime Minister’s Office’s claim earlier this week that Hamas had indeed decapitated children, nor did Mr. Gallant repeat that accusation against NATO ministers.
But doctors, international human rights groups and journalists have documented that militants have gone on a rampage, killing not only young men and soldiers, but also women, children and the elderly.
Foreign journalists were shown the sites targeted by Hamas, seeing the ruins of burnt-out houses and streets strewn with dead residents and militants.
NATO officials said they did not expect the alliance to become directly involved in the conflict. However, several NATO countries, most notably the United States, have offered military aid to Israel.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after Thursday’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting that the U.S. does not attach any conditions to security assistance to Israel and expects Israel’s professional military to “do the right thing.” He said he is doing so.
Additional reporting by Andy Gray in Brussels. Written by Crispian Ballmer.Editing: Edmund Blair
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