Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday compared the brutal Hamas attack on Israel to the terrorist group ISIS, which American forces have been fighting in the Middle East for nearly a decade, as he vowed to stand by Israel in the wake of the violence.
“The deliberate cruelty of Hamas vividly reminds me of ISIS: bloodthirsty, fanatical and hateful,” Austin said at a press conference in Tel Aviv with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “And like ISIS, Hamas has nothing to offer but zealotry and bigotry and death.”
Austin, who fought against ISIS in Iraq and Syria and led coalition forces against the extremist group before retiring from military service, said when he was in combat he felt as if he “were staring evil in the eye.”
“It was truly evil. And what we’ve seen from Hamas, it takes that evil to another level,” he added. “And so that’s the first thing that we need to remember and consider.”
Austin arrived Friday in Israel, nearly a week after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise invasion in southern Israel and killed more than 1,400 people, including children.
The U.S. is helping Israel respond to the attack by surging the delivery of air defense munitions and bolstering its presence in the eastern Mediterranean with naval ships and warplanes.
The Pentagon chief landed a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Thursday with top Israeli leaders.
Austin also arrived as Israel is preparing for a massive ground invasion into Gaza, the coastal enclave where Hamas militants govern some 2 million Palestinians. The U.S. Defense chief already held a private meeting with Gallant in a war room, the Israeli defense minister said at the press conference.
Gallant said Hamas brutally murdered Israeli citizens and Israel must respond in kind to protect itself.
“This is Hamas. This is the ISIS of Gaza,” he said. “And as the secretary said, they took evil to another level. … This is a war on the existence of Israel as a prosperous state, as a democratic state, as the homeland of the Jewish people.”
Austin said Friday the U.S. would “continue to flow in security assistance,” saying Israel has the right to defend itself.
The Defense secretary said the Hamas attack is “the deadliest attack on civilians in the history of the state of Israel and the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the end of the Holocaust.”
“Hamas attacked at a time of global challenge, but the United States is the most powerful country in the world, and we remain fully able to project power and uphold our commitments and direct resources to multiple theaters,” Austin said in opening remarks. “And as this harrowing week draws to a close and as Shabbat draws near, we stand together and we stand strong.
“The United States has Israel’s back, and that is not negotiable, and it never will be.”