Senior Biden Officials Say Hamas Committing Genocide, War Crimes

Barbara Leaf (L), Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Near East Affairs, and Dana Stroul (R), Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, testify before the Foreign Affairs Committee, which holds a hearing on U.S. support for Israel after Hamas’ attack in Washington on Nov. 8, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The terrorist group Hamas is committing genocide, senior Biden administration officials told Congress on Nov. 8.

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing about U.S. support for Israel—which has come under its latest round of attacks from Hamas since Oct. 7— Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) asked the Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for the Middle East, Dana Stroul, “Would you say that Hamas is also guilty of war crimes and genocide?”

“Yes,” said Ms. Stroul.

“Yes,” said Ms. Leaf.

In the U.S. government, namely the State Department, “genocide” is an official designation and is not said casually. It carries a heavy weight in terms of U.S. policy and messaging.

The hearing was interrupted numerous times by pro-Palestinian activists, as has been the case on Capitol Hill during hearings about the Israel-Hamas conflict or antisemitism.

On March 21, 2022, the State Department announced it deemed the Burmese military junta had committed genocide against Rohingya Muslims.

“Today’s determination is one step on that path as it tells Rohingya, and victims in particular, that the U.S. government recognizes the gravity of the atrocities committed against them,” said Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a speech announcing the genocide labeling.

“And it affirms Rohingyas’ human rights and dignity, something the Burmese military has tried to destroy.”

On Oct. 7, Israel—created in the aftermath of the Holocaust, where 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis—experienced the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since history’s darkest hour when Hamas launched rockets from Gaza into the Jewish state and invaded it, killing 1400 men, women, and children, raping women, and taking hundreds of hostages.

Hamas terrorists even dragged an elderly female Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair into Gaza.

Hamas, which is backed by Iran and Qatar and is designated by the United States and other countries as a terrorist organization, controls Gaza. About 700 U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are looking to leave Gaza, Ms. Leaf testified.

The terrorist group was created by Ahmed Yassin and six other Muslims in 1987, during the First Intifada in Israel. It is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist organization that has expressed hostility toward Israel and the West.

Hamas stands for “Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya,” or “Islamic Resistance Movement.”

There are presently between 20,000 and 25,000 members of Hamas, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

The terror attacks occurred on Oct. 7 as Jews were celebrating Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday to mark the completion of reading the Torah and starting to read the Five Books of Moses again. Hamas fired shots at attendees of a music festival in Israel close to its border with Gaza, a geographical strip of land controlled by the group, and raided Jewish villages.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war to annihilate Hamas.

“All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into ruins,” he said.

“Now is the time to obliterate Hamas’s military terror infrastructure,” said Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan.

Israel has retaliated with air strikes and a ground operation in Gaza.

Hamas, whose terrorists wear a green headband, has a military as well as a political unit. Its charter, published in 1988, calls for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.

In 2017, Hamas published a “document of general principles and policies” stating that “a real state of Palestine is a state that has been liberated.”