Virtual On-the-Record Gaggle by NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Hamas Terrorist Attacks in Israel

Press Release

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"Good evening, everybody. As you know, the White House has been closely following the situation in Israel, and the President has been actively engaged, regularly receiving updates on the latest developments from the national security team. In fact, this morning, he met with members of the senior team -- including the Secretary of State; National Security Advisor; the Principal Deputy National Security Advisor; the Homeland Security Advisor, Liz Sherwood-Randall; and, of course, the White House Chief of Staff, Jeff Zients -- all to receive the latest update from -- from the morning.

He has also spoken twice with Prime Minister Netanyahu this -- over the weekend, certainly to express our deep sympathy for all those missing, wounded, and killed and to pledge his full support for Israel at this incriti- -- critical and dangerous moment.

He has also spoken with many of our allies and partners -- including the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom -- just this afternoon to help coordinate our efforts.

In response to Hamas's horrific terrorist attacks, President Biden directed his team to do everything we can to ensure that the government of Israel has what it needs. At his direction, our military began shipping military aid to Israel and the Secretary of Defense has adjusted our force posture in the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts.

Our teams at the White House and across the U.S. government have been in close contact with our Israeli partners and are working with our regional partners to warn anyone who might seek to take advantage in this situation against taking hostile action.

We will have more assistance to announce over the coming days to ensure that no enemies of Israel believe that they can or should try to seek advantage from the current situation.

Hundreds of innocent civilians were murdered, including at least 11 American citizens, and there are other American citizens who remain unaccounted for.

The U.S. government is doing everything we can to determine the whereabouts of these U.S. citizens. The President has directed his team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts.

Let me say once again that the United States unequivocally condemns these horrific terrorist attacks in Israel, which have taken the lives of Israeli and American citizens, as well as citizens from many countries around the world.

And as the President has said, our hearts go out to every single family impacted and affected by the horrible, reprehensible events of the past few days. To quote from his statement from this afternoon, "The pain [that] these families have endured, the enormity of their loss, and the agony of those [that are] still [waiting for] information is unfathomable."

Terrorism is never justified, and what we have seen Hamas do is appalling and horrific. We will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Israeli people in this moment of crisis for them.

And in keeping with that commitment, you will also see that they will light the White House up tonight in blue and white in honor of Israeli colors and the Israeli flag. That will -- that will take place right after sundown.

So, with that, I'm happy to take some questions."

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"Can I ask you to repeat the first question? It broke up. It was something about us joining, but I didn't get the rest of it."

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"Okay. So, on your first question, I mean, there's no intention to put U.S. boots on the ground.

That said, as evidenced -- and this kind of gets to your third question -- as evidenced by the changes in our force posture in the region, including the movement of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group into the Eastern Med, President Biden will always make sure that we are protecting and defending our national security interests wherever those interests are, including particularly in that part of the world. And I think I'll leave it at that.

And then, your other question was about the aid. I can tell you that the first tranche of additional security assistance -- and I say "additional" because, you know, we have a longstanding defense relationship with Israel whereby there are routine security assistance being delivered and worked on together with them. But in the wake of these terrorist attacks -- the first tranche in the wake of these terrorist attacks are -- is already on the way. And I had a chance to speak with my colleagues at the Defense Department just before getting on with you to confirm that, but it's on the way.

I don't believe it's actually made it to Israel yet, but it is -- it is -- it's making its way there. And we will -- obviously, we fully expect that there will be additional requests for security assistance from Israel as they continue to expend munitions in this fight. And we will stay in lockstep with them, making sure that we're filling their needs as best -- as best we can and as fast as we can."

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"I'll let the Saudis speak to their statement; I can only speak to ours.

And it's been pretty clear and unequivocal what we think about these terrorist attacks and what we think about our responsibilities and our commitment to the Israeli people.

On normalization, Aamer -- we still believe that normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia is not only good for the people of those two nations, but for the American people and for everybody else in the region. And we have every intention to continue to encourage a process where normalization can occur.

I couldn't speculate now as to what impact the events of the last 36 hours is going to have on -- on those efforts. But nothing has changed about our -- our continued desire to pursue that kind of an outcome.

And in any event, Aamer, we're -- even before the attacks of the weekend, we were, you know, months away from -- you know, from getting close to some sort of agreed-to negotiation here. So, we intend to keep -- keep at that work.

Now, obviously, the focus right now, in these hours, is much more in line with supporting Israel's ability to defend itself. That's where our energies are being applied most stringently, and certainly that's where they should appropriately be applied. But nothing has changed about our desire to see that normalization occur."

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"Barak, and I meant to say this when -- when Yuna asked her question, but I got distracted. I am not going to ask you for any detail, but I do hope that your family and your loved ones and your friends are safe and that you had a chance to stay in communication with them.

On your question, I know of no such assets being considered at this time. You know, we, obviously, as I said earlier, will -- the President will do what he has to do to look after our national security interests there and elsewhere. That -- that's not going to change. But I know of no specific efforts to seek additional authorities or anything from Congress in the -- in any kind of a hypothetical situation.

On Hezbollah, you know, we certainly have seen the attacks from Lebanon into northern Israel. We've certainly seen the IDF respond to those attacks. There's been conflicting messages coming out of Hezbollah about the degree to which they will or plan to get involved.

One of the reasons why the President ordered that carrier strike group into Eastern Med is to send a clear, unequivocal message to any actor or nation-state that thinks that is a -- that this is a chance to try to take advantage of the position that Israel finds itself in, and we want that message to be let -- heard loud and clear. We always will do what we need to do to protect our people, our troops, our national security interests.

And, again, I just know of no efforts to -- to go to Congress with any kind of additional authorities."

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"Steve, we -- we can't confirm that they are in fact holding hostages. We are working literally by the hour to try to get more information about these unaccounted-for Americans. The truth is, we don't have a solid idea of how many total are unaccounted for. Well, you know, we got an idea and -- but we don't know where they are, so I can't say definitively that we know that Americans are being held hostage.

That said, we have to accept the grim possibility that some are. And I don't want to say we're assuming it, but we have to accept that grim possibility.

So, we're going to keep at this. We're going to stay in touch with Israeli officials as closely as we can to get as much information as we can about -- about all the Americans in Israel, particularly those that that we know are unaccounted for, because they -- the family members can't reach them."

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"I wouldn't go so far as to say that. I would -- I would tell you though, look, it's only been -- what? -- a couple of days. And so, our focus and the focus of the folks here at the NSC -- Brett McGurk and his team -- are rightly and appropriately on this: on supporting Israel, trying to ground truth on our Americans, supporting the families that've got the worst possible news yesterday and today. But I think it's too soon to say that, you know, we've hit the brakes on this.

It's just -- it, understandably, isn't the main area of focus right now. But I wouldn't go so far as to say, you know, we've given up on it or we don't have any interest in pursuing it.

It just -- again, given the circumstances, is not -- not on the front burner, but -- but certainly we're not -- we're not -- we're not discarding it."

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"So, on Iran, let me start by saying that no question that there's a degree of complicity here, but Iran has been supporting Hamas for many, many years -- tools, training, capabilities -- certainly rhetorically but in more much more tangible ways than that. So, absolutely, there's a degree of complicity here writ large.

That said, we haven't -- and we're -- and we are looking through the information streams. We haven't seen hard, tangible evidence that Iran was directly involved in participating in or resourcing and planning these sets of complex attacks that Hamas pulled off over the weekend.

Again, we're going to keep looking at it. Our Israeli counterparts are also actively looking, and even they have publicly said they don't see the -- quote, unquote -- smoking gun. So we'll just keep -- we'll just keep at it. We'll keep -- we'll keep trying to learn more. But obviously, nobody is walking away from the fact that Iran has long supported Hamas."

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"I won't speak to the -- in more detail to the private conversations that the President had with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I certainly will not put words in his mouth or verify anything that Prime Minister Netanyahu might have said or not said. That would be inappropriate for me to do that.

It is clear that given the size and the scale and the scope of the violence that have been visited on the Israeli people by Hamas that the Israeli Defense Forces are responding aggressively. You don't -- you can look at the imagery and see that -- that they're being very, very aggressive in how they respond. And I think it's just more appropriate that we let them speak to their military operations, present and future tense.

I wouldn't even -- even if this was an American operation, we wouldn't talk about future military operations one way or the other. So, I -- I don't want to start by doing that today."

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"I don't think we have a sense about whether or not there'll be any kind of an impact base- -- based on what's happening in Israel. I can just tell you that we believe both are -- are important.

Support to Ukraine needs to continue. They are also at a critical moment in their counteroffensive with -- you know, with weeks of good weather left to try to make more progress. So, it's a critical need. We're going to continue to make that case on Capitol Hill.

We continue to appreciate the bipartisan support by the majority of members of the House and Senate for -- for supporting Ukraine, and we'll continue to make that case. We continue to want our supplemental request approved so that there's no lapse at all -- not even a day -- in support to Ukraine.

Israel -- obviously, we have a longstanding defense relationship with them. We have existing authorities and existing appropriations to continue to support Israel if we need. And I'm -- it's an "if," but if we need to go back to Capitol Hill for additional funding support for Israel, we will absolutely do that. We have kept members of Congress informed over the last couple of days about what's going on, what we're learning, what we're seeing, what we're doing. That will continue.

And, again, if part of that conversation needs to be a request for additional funding, well, by goodness, we'll have that conversation and we'll go to them.

And if that was to be the case, certainly it would just validate the fact that both are important. And we a large enough, big enough, economically viable and vibrant enough country to be able to support both."

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"Look, I would just say, as we've said before, Israel has the right to defend itself, and you're seeing them -- you're seeing them do that. And in some ways, they're doing it aggressively. And given the size and scale and the scope of the violence, you know, we -- we understand where that's coming from.

I would -- I would also say that we and Israel, as democracies, we have a lot of shared values and a lot of shared interests. And certainly, one of those shared values and shared interest is respect for life -- the kind of respect that Hamas is clearly not showing at all. And (inaudible) --

Q But the -- but the residents in Gaza -- a lot of them are not even sympathetic toward Hamas, so that's kind of what I'm trying to get at is -- is --"

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"No, that's -- but that's -- but that's --"

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"Well, nobody wants to see an innocent civilian killed or wounded or hurt in any way. I mean, that -- that -- the whole -- the whole premise of our statements to date have been, you know, that -- you know, again, terrorism and this kind of violence has no place. And so, nobody wants to see anybody -- an innocent civilian or a family -- wrecked by violence. Of course not.

But, again, you know, we have -- we share values with Israel when it comes to law of war and respect for life. And, again, I just -- I can't -- I won't speak to whatever Israeli Defense Forces are planning to do in their operations, but -- but I think I'll just leave it there."

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"It's a little bit of -- it's sort of all of the above, to be honest with you.

I mean, clearly, we are in direct communication with Israeli officials to learn what they know, understanding that it's a very dynamic time for them and they don't even have perfect knowledge of every Israeli citizen and where every Israeli citizen is. So, we understand that they're under a great strain. But yes, we're in direct communication with them at various levels to try to get as much information as they might have that can help us.

And yes, we have been hearing from many family members. I wouldn't go so far to say that we're, you know, cold calling families the -- because, you know, we wouldn't have the -- wouldn't have the information to be able to do that. You know, American citizens don't need to tell us where they are, where they're traveling, where they're living.

But -- but we are certainly hearing from -- actively hearing from many families of Americans in Israel asking if we've heard anything, do we know anything, sharing with us what they can about what they know of their loved one or when they last heard from them.

So, we are getting input directly from families, and that's certainly very helpful in terms of giving us a sense of the -- of the scope of the problem set.

I'm leery right now to get into any more detail than that, other than to say that we know there is a number of unaccounted--for Americans, and we're trying very, very hard on an individual basis to try to track them down and to -- and to try to figure out where they are."

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"I think I'll leave the -- I'll leave that to the State Department to clarify. I don't know that that's appropriate coming from me, but we certainly have heard from -- from a number of -- of families, and I think that's about as much detail as I can go into tonight."

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"I think you can understand I wouldn't get into the details of intelligence sharing with Israel. We -- we have a strong intel-sharing relationship. We are obviously improving and sharpening that here in the wake of these attacks, and I can't go into more detail on that.

I don't -- I won't get into the specific intelligence about Hamas's preparations in planning and resourcing for this. I would just say what I said before: We have not seen any specific, tangible piece of evidence or fact that points directly to Iranian participation in these sets of attacks."

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"That means that we cannot corroborate the reporting in the Wall Street Journal. We are obviously looking at this. Our Israeli counterparts are looking at it, and they too have said publicly that they cannot point to specific Iranian involvement in these sets of attacks over the weekend.

So, again, you know, we'll just keep at it. We'll just have to keep at the work.

And then on the other question about Hezbollah: Nobody wants to see the -- this conflict broaden or deepen or grow or escalate. I can't speak for what Hezbollah may or may not do. They've already launched rockets in there. They have said confusing things about their intentions. On one hand, saying that, you know, obviously they support what Hamas has done. On the other hand, saying they have no interest in getting involved unless Gaza is invaded by -- by the IDF.

I can't -- I can't hypothesize about where this might go, but clearly, we don't -- we don't want to see it escalate.

And look, one of the reasons why the President directed the Defense Department to move additional military forces in and around and near the region is to send a strong message of deterrence that no other actor, no other nation-state, no other group ought to be looking at this as a chance to take advantage. "

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"Yes, sir."

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"Well, you want to do the second one or you just want to take it one by one?"

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"He -- I think he's been very clear that we will -- our -- our relationship with -- with Israel is rock solid, ironclad, unshakable. That's not going to change. And that's not -- that's not just hyperbole or empty rhetoric, James; I mean, that is a longstanding position of the United States across multiple administrations -- Democratic and Republican.

And Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel for his entire life in public service, and that will not change certainly for as long as he's president of the United States."

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"I think Prime Minister Netanyahu knows very well, based on the conversations he's had with the President in just the last day or so, how strongly President Biden and the United States and this administration stands with Israel."

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"I would take issue with the premise of your question, James. There was no shunning. There was no disrespect. The President had a -- has had a long relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He certainly had a chance to speak with him after he formed his government. We have been clear and very consistent in our support for the democratic institutions and the shared values that we both cherish -- both the Israeli people and the United States.

The President will -- will always speak honestly and candidly with foreign leaders, particularly with those countries with whom we're -- we're so close and have such a great relationship like -- like Israel.

So, again, grateful that he had the chance to speak with Prime Minister Netanyahu twice yesterday [this weekend], and I fully expect that you will see additional conversations between those two leaders in the coming days."

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" I won't talk about ROE. The strike force is a very capable military -- naval military power. And it's being dispatched for really two purposes: A strong signal of reassurance to the American people who live in the region, to our allies and partners in the region that the United States won't -- does not want to see anybody else try to take advantage; and then deterrence -- deterrence of anybody who might think that way.

But there's a lot of capabilities in that strike force, and -- and I -- and we believe that the folks in the region -- they understand -- they understand what those capabilities are. And I won't get beyond that.

As I said earlier, there was no intention to put U.S. troops -- U.S. boots on the ground in Israel.

What's your second question?"

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" I don't have any calls with the families to read out. I know the State Department has reached out to at least the first nine that we were able to confirm. I don't know if they've spoken to the families of the additional two that we learned today had been killed. But they did reach the families of the first nine that we knew of.

Oh, shoot, you had another one. What was the --"

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"Oh -- oh, yeah. Yeah."

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"Well, so, first of all, we can't confirm that Americans are being held hostage.

I mean, I've seen the reporting. I'm aware of the comments by some Israeli officials. We aren't -- we don't -- we cannot confirm that Americans are being held hostage.

We have to accept the possibility and the likelihood that -- that some may be -- I mean, we're not -- you know, we're not dismissing that, but we can't confirm that. So, your question is getting a little bit further ahead of information that we have.

And even if we did have specific information that we could confirm that Americans are being held hostage, as you well know, we are very, very careful about talking publicly about our efforts to try to recover those Americans. We just don't typically talk about that in a -- in any way that might jeopardize their safety and our ability to get them home with their families.

But, again, it's just a question we're not really prepared to offer tangible answers to because we just don't have the information to back it up."

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"I mean, this really comes off of Anita's question. And I -- and I'm glad -- I was glad she asked it, and it was obviously an appropriate one to ask even though we don't have information to back it up.

And that is that there's an awful lot of families -- Israeli, American, and from other countries -- that are hurting right now. Some of them have got the most devastating news that a family can get. Others are just torn apart with the uncertainty of not knowing where their loved one is or how their loved one is.

And I just think it's important that all of us keep that in mind. And as we, as an administration, work with Israel, as we work through these problem sets, I just want to make it clear that, first and foremost, we're going to keep those families in mind.

These are all human beings. They all have stories. They all come from somewhere. They all love someone. They -- they're no different than you and me and the families that we have. And that will be front and center in the policy decisions that are laying before us in the days ahead -- the very difficult decisions that are laying before us in the days ahead. And I just think it's important that we don't lose the -- we just don't lose the human component of all this.

But anyway, thanks again for chiming in. I know it's late and I was late starting, and I apologize for that.

But I'm glad we were -- had this opportunity, and I'm sure we'll have additional opportunities in the -- in the days ahead in this week.

Thank you."

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