Trey Yingst joins the Israel Defense Forces inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital while reporting on the front lines of the fight between Israel and Hamas.
Trey Yingst joins
the Israel Defense Forces inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital while reporting on
the front lines of the fight between Israel and Hamas.
White House
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby suggested Thursday that it’s
unlikely that the ideology of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas can be
eradicated by Israel’s military operations.
Kirby spoke a day
after President Biden said he thinks Israel's military operation in Gaza will
stop when Hamas "no longer maintains the capacity to murder, abuse and do
horrific things to the Israelis."
"What we have
learned through our own experiences ... through military and other means, you
can absolutely have a significant impact on [a] terrorist group's ability to
resource itself, to train fighters, to recruit fighters, to plan and to execute
attacks," Kirby said Thursday during a briefing.
"I mean, look
at the shadow of itself that ISIS is right now, look at the shadow of itself
that al Qaeda is right now. That doesn't mean that the ideology also withers
away and dies," he continued. "But you can absolutely have a
practical, meaningful effect on a terrorist organization's ability to conduct
and execute its attacks."
This image from
undated bodycam video footage taken by a downed Hamas terrorist and released by
the Israel Defense Forces shows a Hamas terrorist walking around a residential
neighborhood at an undisclosed location in southern Israel. (Israel Defense Forces
via AP)
Kirby also said
that "Hamas leaders have come out publicly since Oct. 7 and said that
their intention is to attack Israel again and again and again, and they've
said, quite frankly, that they want to remove that country from the face of the
Earth."
"So, that is
the threat that the Israeli people are facing from Hamas," he added.
"And that is the threat that they are militarily trying to minimize and
reduce."
The Israel-Hamas
war, as of Thursday, has been unfolding for nearly six weeks.
This image from
undated bodycam video footage taken by a downed Hamas militant and released by
the Israel Defense Forces shows a Hamas militant walking around a residential
neighborhood at an undisclosed location in southern Israel. (Israel Defense
Forces via AP)
Speaking at a
press conference after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on
Wednesday, Biden called on the Israeli military to exercise caution as it
pursues Hamas military targets near civilian infrastructure. He said the Israel
Defense Forces have "an obligation to use as much caution as they can in
going after their targets."
However, he added,
"Hamas said they plan to attack Israelis again, and this is a terrible
dilemma."
Biden and his
administration have remained steadfast in support of Israel's ongoing war
against Hamas. U.S. officials have strongly condemned the Oct. 7 terror attacks
on Israel in which Hamas terrorists infiltrated the Jewish state and massacred
as many as 1,200 people, taking some 240 back to Gaza as hostages.
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