Blinken recounts graphic video of Israeli dad, sons targeted at kibbutz
Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended Israel's military actions against Hamas at a Friday news conference in Israel after meeting with Israeli leaders, saying, "This right to self-defense, indeed, this obligation to self-defense, belongs to every nation. No country could, or should, tolerate the slaughter of innocents."
Blinken delivers remarks following 2nd meeting with Netanyahu since start of war
Blinken said during his Friday meetings with Israeli leaders he viewed more footage from Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, describing the videos as "almost beyond the human capacity to process."
In one video, he said, a father at a kibbutz grabbed his two sons, who appeared about 10 or 11 years old, and pulled them from the house into a shelter.
The family was "followed seconds later by a terrorist who throws a grenade into that small shelter," Blinken said.
When the dad came stumbling out of the shelter, he was shot, Blinken said.
The sons then ran from the shelter into the house, crying, "Where's daddy?" he said.
The terrorist then "casually opens the refrigerator and starts to eat from it," Blinken said.
"It is striking, and in some ways, shocking, that the brutality of the slaughter has receded so quickly in the memories of so many. But not in Israel and not in America," he said.
After sharing details of the terror inflicted on Israeli children during the conflict, Blinken touched on the images of young Palestinian boys and girls pulled from the rubble of buildings.
"When I see that, when I look into their eyes through the TV screen, I see my own children," he said.
