White House admits Biden has NOT seen ‘confirmed pictures of Hamas beheading children’ – despite publicly saying he had HOURS before

The White House has been forced to reverse Joe Biden’s confirmation that he had seen photos from Israel of ‘terrorists beheading children’ this weekend – only hours after he made the claim.

Biden held a meeting with Jewish community leaders in the White House on Wednesday, and said he had been shocked by the brutality of the Hamas attack.

‘This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty, not just hate, but pure cruelty, against the Jewish people,’ Biden said.

He added: ‘I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.’

His comments were seen as ending speculation about the truth of the claim of beheaded children, which was originally made by an IDF soldier, David Ben Zion a Deputy Commander of Unit 71 of the Israeli army.

But the White House then denied he had seen these photos.

A White House official told CNN that neither the president nor anyone in his administration had seen any pictures, but that Biden had based his comment on news reports. 

Joe Biden is seen on Wednesday during a roundtable discussion with leaders in the Jewish community in the Indian Treaty Room at the White House

Hamas left a trail of devastation at a series of kibbutzes near the border with Gaza, including children’s beds soaked in blood

Hamas terrorists are seen on Saturday morning entering the kibbutz

The Israeli soldier who first made the claim, David Ben Zion, told i24 News: ‘We walked door to door, we killed a lot of terrorists. They are very bad. They cut heads of children, they cut heads of women. But we are stronger than them.’

The IDF later said they could not confirm his account.

Nicole Zedeck, the i24 News reporter who spoke to Ben Zion, on Tuesday addressed skepticism over her reporting.

‘I witnessed some of those scenes with my own eyes as we were walking through this community that may be a quarter of a mile from the Gaza border, the atrocities that were still left behind, children, cribs, baby cribs overturned on their side, splattered with blood. Horrible, horrible images,’ she told The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.

She said the soldiers she spoke to told her of the horrors.

‘There’s no words to describe what they’ve seen,’ said Zedeck. 

‘I mean, babies’ heads cut off. That’s what they encountered when they came there. 

‘So as horrible as it is and I wish that it wasn’t true. And I see how those images and those words are hard to comprehend because it’s hard to comprehend how anyone could commit such heinous, heinous crimes.

‘But that’s exactly what happened in just one of the kibbutz communities.’

Tal Heinrich, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday told CNN that babies and toddlers were found ‘decapitated’ in the community of Kfar Aza.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces separately told The Intercept on Wednesday that ‘we cannot confirm it officially, but you can assume it happened and believe the report.’

Meanwhile, Yossi Landau, an official with Israel’s volunteer civilian emergency response organization Zaka, told CBS News he personally saw the bodies of children and babies who were beheaded.

David Ben Zion, Deputy Commander of Unit 71, told i24News that he had seen victims decapitated, including children

Troops remove the bodies of victims, killed during an attack by Hamas terrorists in Kfar Aza, on Tuesday

The body of a woman is covered with a blanket in Kfar Azza

A baby’s seat and a child’s dress are seen spattered in blood in the aftermath of the attack 

Gunshots and blood stains litter the walls and door of a house in the kibbutz near the border with Gaza 

A soldier is overcome with emotion as he searches for bodies in the kibbutz

A charred house after an attack by Palestinian terrorists on the kibbutz on Tuesday

Biden on Wednesday called the Hamas attack on Israel ‘the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust,’ and a campaign of ‘pure cruelty’, adding once again that the United States stood solidly with Israel.

The death toll now stands at 1,200 in Israel, including 14 Americans, and another 1,100 in Gaza. 

Hamas is believed to have taken 150 hostages, including Americans, and is threatening to execute them if Israel launches a ground invasion of Gaza. 

Biden said that the United States was working feverishly to try and secure the release of the hostages.

‘We’re working on every aspect of the hostage crisis in Israel, including deploying experts to advise and assist with recovery efforts,’ he said. 

‘Now, the press are going to shout to me: what are you doing to bring these folks home? If I told you, I wouldn’t be able to get them home. 

‘Folks, there’s a lot we’re doing, a lot we’re doing.

‘I have not given up hope of bringing these folks home. 

‘But the idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre. So, I hope you understand how bizarre I think it would be to try to answer that question.’

This graphic (above) shows how the horrifying Hamas massacre on the Kfar Aza kibbutz unfolded

John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, was asked at an earlier briefing whether the administration is in contact directly or indirectly with Hamas about securing their release, and whether he could describe their condition.

‘Now, where they are and in what condition, no,’ said Kirby.

He said the White House does not know if they are being kept together, and whether they are being moved around. 

‘Sadly we don’t know. And that makes efforts very, very difficult.’

He also told ABC White House Correspondent MaryAlice Parks he is ‘not aware of any specific proof of life on any individual hostage.’

Kirby added that the U.S. is in discussion with countries that have lines of communications with Hamas, such as Qatar, to discuss working to free the hostages. Several former senior Hamas leaders live in Qatar.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said Wednesday that Hamas militants beheaded soldiers and raped women in their attack on Israel.

Netanyahu, in a late night televised address, detailed some of the atrocities that took place during the attack. 

He said boys and girls were shot in the head and that people had been burned alive.

Netanyahu compared Hamas to ISIS, and vowed that Israel’s retaliation against the terrorist group ‘will reverberate with them for generations.’

A house left in ruins after an attack by Hamas militants on this kibbutz days earlier when dozens of civilians were killed near the border with Gaza on Tuesday

A dead civilian lies under a blanket outside a house in the kibbutz near the border with Gaza on Tuesday 

Israeli soldiers search for the bodies of Israelis killed in Kfar Aza kibbutz near the border with Gaza on Tuesday 

Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday, in what was at least the fourth call between Biden and Netanyahu since Saturday’s attack. 

Biden, after the call, said that Hamas’ attack was reminiscent of the Holocaust.

‘This attack has brought to the surface the painful memories and scars left by a millennium antisemitism and genocide against the Jewish people,’ he said. 

‘And this moment we have to be crystal clear: There is no justification for terrorism, no excuse and the type of terrorism that was exhibited here is just beyond the pale. Beyond the pale.’ 

Biden also had a warning for Iran. 

After listing aid the U.S. is sending to Israel, and noting that a U.S. carrier fleet was moved to the area, Biden said he ‘made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful.’ 

U.S. intelligence showed Iranian leaders were surprised by Hamas’ attack on Israel, sources told NBC News, but the Biden administration has yet to make a definitive conclusion. 

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that Iran was ‘complicit’ in the attack because it has backed Hamas for decades.