Israeli security forces at the scene where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a shelter in the southern city of Sderot, October 9, 2023. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90).
Hamas is carrying out “ISIS level savagery” against Israeli civilians, a senior US Defense Department official tells reporters during a briefing.
“I want to differentiate this from other times we have seen conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. This is ISIS level savagery that we have seen committed against Israeli civilians – houses burned to the ground, young people massacred at music festivals.,” the official says, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We are working as fast as possible to provide critically needed munitions of various types and other equipment. We’re also contacting US industry to gain expedited shipment of pending Israeli orders for military equipment that otherwise may have been considered routine for movement,” the official says.
“We’re also working across the DOD enterprise, including with US Central Command, to assess what munitions and other equipment are in US inventory that can be made quickly available for Israel. All of this are actions we’re undertaking within our existing authority and appropriations,” the senior defense official adds.
The statement by a senior U.S. defense official echoed comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also likened Hamas to the Islamic State terror group, which gained notoriety for posting videos of beheadings and other executions on social media.
“I think there’s been an instinct to see this as the same kind of tensions or conflicts that we’ve seen between Palestinians and Israelis,” said the official, briefing reports on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon. “This is different.”
“Hamas militants going across Israel, murdering children in front of their parents, massacring with indiscriminate violence [at] music festivals, burning down entire houses while families sheltered in their bunkers. … It’s unprecedented,” the official said.
“We back Israel and its right to respond to ensure that its own citizens and its territory are safe from Hamas terror and recognize that there’s going to need to be a response for Israel to restore deterrence,” the official added.
Already, the U.S. has ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the eastern Mediterranean, which includes the U.S. Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, a guided missile cruiser and five guided missile destroyers.