Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is trying to confirm reports that several Americans are among the dead and missing after Hamas fighters from Gaza launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday.
Blinken told NBC’s Meet the Press when asked if the U.S. would play a role in freeing American or Israeli hostages that detained Americans are “going to be a priority for this government, for this administration, and for me, but I don’t need to get ahead of where we are. We have reports; we need to verify them.”
Blinken called it the worst attack on Israel since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. He told CNN’s State of the Union that additional aid to Israel could be announced as early as today in response to “specific additional requests that the Israelis have made.”
The Pentagon announced it was sending more equipment and resources, including weapons, to Israel to arrive in the coming days, and it is moving Navy ships closer to Israel in a show of support.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford and guided-missle cruisers and destroyers were ordered to move to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. “The U.S. maintains ready forces globally to further reinforce this deterrence posture if need be,” he said.
President Joe Biden spoke Sunday morning with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him additional assistance for the Israeli Defense Forces is on its way with more to follow, the White House said.
Getting Congress to approve additional funding might be tricky given the lack of a House Speaker after last week’s ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the role. Rep. Michael McCaul (R, Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, told CNN the goal is to get a new Speaker elected this week “so we can get things on the floor, like replenishing the Iron Dome.”
The Iron Dome is a reference to Israel’s air missile defense system. McCaul said there is already $3.3 billion in foreign military appropriations that can be available. But McCaul also said there is urgency for the House to act, and he has been working with Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) on a bipartisan resolution condemning Hamas for what they have done to Israel.
“We want to get that on the floor by unanimous consent, whether or not we have a speaker in place, because I think we cannot wait,” McCaul told CNN.
Rep. Ken Buck (R, Colo.) told ABC that House Republicans should identify a Speaker behind closed doors before going to the floor to avoid the spectacle of a chaotic vote. Earlier this year, it took 15 ballots to elect McCarthy. “I think we lock the doors and we have very limited bathroom breaks and food breaks, and make sure we get the job done,” he said.
Natanyahu has vowed retribution for the attacks, and Israel has responded with its own airstrikes on Gaza.
Blinken told CBS’ Face the Nation that the magnitude of Hamas’ attack on Israel is “something we haven’t seen before,” including deliberately targeting civilians, gunning them down in the streets and in their homes, and “dragging them across the border in Gaza.”
Whatever Israel does in Gaza, he said the U.S. expects Israel in whatever it does to “do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.”
Blinken also told ABC that the challenge for Israel and its supporters it to take steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again. “The focus has to be on helping Israel recover the territory that has been taken briefly by Hamas, protecting its citizens, and taking whatever measures are necessary to avoid this repeating itself,” he said.
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog told CBS that at least 600 Israelis are dead, including families, seniors, and children and that there are Americans among the hostages taken by Hamas, but said he didn’t have any details.
He told CBS that the Israeli Embassy has been flooded with phone calls from people who want to go back to Israel and fight Hamas. He said Hamas made “a gross miscalculation” that Israel may have been weakened because of internal political debates.
Write to Janet H. Cho at [email protected]
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