A U.S.-based pro-Muslim group blasted President Biden after he expressed \u2018no confidence\u2019 in the Palestinian death toll figures reported by Hamas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned what they called \u2018shocking and dehumanizing\u2019 remarks made by Biden during a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the White House, Biden rejected a question posed by PBS correspondent Laura Barro\u0301n-Lo\u0301pez about the Palestinian death count provided by the terrorist group Hamas, saying he has \u2018no confidence\u2019 such numbers are truthful.<\/p>\n
\u2018We are deeply disturbed and shocked by the dehumanizing comments that President Biden made about the almost 7,000 Palestinians slaughtered by the Israeli government over the past two weeks,\u2019 CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The Israeli government has openly admitted that it is targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Journalists have confirmed the high number of casualties, and countless videos coming out of Gaza every day show mangled bodies of Palestinian women and children \u2014 and entire city blocks leveled to the ground. President Biden should watch some of these videos and ask himself if the crushed children being dragged out of the ruins of their family homes are a fabrication or an acceptable price of war. They are neither,\u2019 Awad continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He demanded an apology from Biden and called on the president to \u2018condemn the Israeli government for deliberately targeting civilians, and demand a ceasefire before more innocent people die.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reached for comment, the White House noted that the president, in his answer and in his opening remarks, reiterated the importance of avoiding any Palestinian civilian casualties. Biden has repeatedly said the loss of innocent Palestinian life is a tragedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During a joint press conference Wednesday alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Barro\u0301n-Lo\u0301pez attempted to press Biden on whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was keeping his word of limiting civilian casualties in Israel\u2019s response to the horrific Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018In the 18 days since Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed over 6,000 Palestinians, including 2,700 children,\u2019 Barro\u0301n-Lo\u0301pez said. \u2018You\u2019ve previously asked Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties. Do these numbers say to you that he\u2019s ignoring that message?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,\u2019 Biden responded.<\/p>\n
Biden continued, \u2018I\u2019m sure innocents have been killed, and it\u2019s the price of waging a war. I think we should be incredibly careful\u2026 Israel should be incredibly careful to be sure that they\u2019re focusing on going after the folks that are the propagating this war against Israel. And it\u2019s against their interest when that doesn\u2019t happen. But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.\u2019<\/p>\n
Last week, several news organizations rushed to report claims made by the Gaza Health Ministry that Israel bombed al-Ahli Baptist Hospital through an airstrike resulting in over 500 civilian casualties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Subsequent reporting and intelligence found it was an explosion in the hospital\u2019s parking lot stemming from a misfired rocket fired by Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, resulting in a death toll a fraction of what Hamas had first alleged.<\/p>\n