Biden rips Hamas for 'repeatedly raping' women and girls and 'mutilating their bodies while they were still alive': President launches scathing attack on reported atrocities by terrorist group

President Joe Biden used stark language to describe the 'unimaginable cruelty' of Hamas fighters during their Oct. 7 rampage, citing reports of repeated rapes and desecration of Israelis. 

Biden issued the comments in Boston on a day he is holding three fundraisers for his presidential campaign, after the resumption of fighting between Israel and Hamas following a humanitarian pause that allowed for the release of about 100 hostages from Gaza. 

'Before I begin, let me say a few words about what's going on in Israel right now. The terror that Hamas is continuing to inflict on the Israeli people,' Biden said. 'We had a report in the earliest days that Hamas used rape to terrorize women and girls during the attack on October the 7th in Israel.

'Over the past few weeks, survivors and witnesses of the attacks have shared the horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty. Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It is appalling,' he said.

Biden, who helped author the Violence Against Women Act while serving in the Senate, called ending sexual assault 'one of the causes of my life.'

He said the burden was on 'all of us' to 'forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without equivocation. Without equivocation, without exception.'

'These are civilian women, mostly between the ages of 20 and 39, whom Hamas has refused to let go under the deal that paused the fighting, which I helped negotiate with the Qataris. I spent hours with the Qataris and others to broker, sustain and extend that deal. I got more than 100 hostages out,' Biden said.

He spoke after a series of independent media reports catalogued evidence of rape during the October 7 attack. 

Then he echoed comments from his national security advisor on Monday about the hostage situation.

'Let me be crystal clear: Hamas' refusal to release the remaining young women is what broke this deal and ended the pause in the fighting,' the president said. '

'These women and everyone still being held hostage by Hamas need to be returned to their families immediately. We're not going to stop — we're not going to stop until we bring every one of them home and it's going to be a long process.'

The White House said Monday it was 'gravely concerned' about the women civilian hostages who remain captive inside Gaza, as Israel Defense Forces and Hamas continue to exchange fire. 

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan emphasized the plight of civilian women seized during the Hamas October 7 raid. There are also Israeli military women being held captive. 

He was asked during the White House briefing about Hamas' unwillingness to release the balance of civilian women being held in Gaza, following the breakdown of a seven-day cease fire that led to the release of more than 100 hostages, out of a total of about 240 seized during the assault.

'I'm not going to speculate on that, only to say that they haven't done it, and we're gravely concerned about that. But I'm not going to speculate as to their reasoning,' Sullivan told reporters.

His comments following new reporting from eyewitnesses about the rape of Israeli men and women during the Oct. 7 raid. 

Israel has expanded its ground operations in Gaza, and Israeli forces say they struck 200 'terror' targets in the latest barrage, even as U.S. officials including Vice President Kamala Harris have issued cautions about the risk to Palestinian civilians. 

Administraiton officials continue to try to get information about the status of nine American hostages still held in Gaza. 

'Look, the basic bottom line when it comes to where we are in the hostage negotiations, is that the first phase of the hostage negotiation was about the release of women and children,' said Sullivan, who has been involved the strategy.

'Hamas continues to hold women and civilian women and will not release them. And Israel is not prepared to close the book on those women or to give them up, so Israel is insisting that Hamas follow through on the release of those women,' he said.

'And then Israel has said if Hamas is prepared to follow through on that, Israel is absolutely prepared to discuss additional categories of hostages, civilian men, the wounded and ultimately all of the hostages, the idea of soldiers being held.'

Sullivan was loathe to get into points of leverage that might move the process along.

'The easiest, most straightforward way to get back to it would be for Hamas, to be held accountable for not following through on it. But then we also have to think about how we get all of our American hostages. out and we are giving thought to that as well. And, you know, handicapping forms of leverage or precise strategies for how we go about that is something I will refrain from doing I would just say that we are thinking through, both in concert with Israel and then just as a country with our own citizens. being held, what tools we have at our disposal to be able to get them on.'

Sullivan said it was the 'refusal by Hamas' that 'caused the end of the hostage agreement, and therefore the end of the pause in hostilities. 

Israeli officials said the pause broke down after Hamas refused to produce a list of another 10 female hostages for release, according to the Times of Israel.

Sullivan also talked about protecting 'safe areas,' as Israeli forces told Gaza residents where to go amid a flurry of attacks.

'They have also indicated that there are areas where there will be 'no-strike' zones, and in those zones, we do expect Israel to follow through on not striking,' he said, in a caution to the U.S. ally.