A US Congressman has said that the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 was the "most horrific and barbaric sight". The Congressman, Derrick Van Orden, spoke to the New York Post after touring Israel last week. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mr Van Orden had called Hamas the enemies of peace and said no aid should be sent to Gaza. The Post said the Congressman served 26 years in the Navy and 22 of those were as Navy Seal.
"This is ISIS times 1,000," the Congressman said, adding, "I can speak with authority. I've done multiple combat tours. People were slaughtered at a level not seen since the Holocaust."
Mr Van Orden called Hamas operatives "savages" and "beasts" for targeting children.
"They were told to cut people's arms and legs off...It's gut wrenching," he told the outlet.
Mr Van Orden also blasted the Biden administration for delivering $100 million in humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, from where governing Hamas staged the attack.
Israel retaliated strongly to the attack and on Monday, ramped it further by briefly advancing tanks into the fringes of Gaza City.
The military said it had struck more than 600 targets in 24 hours, up from 450 the previous day, in one of the most intense days of the conflict unleashed when Hamas militants crossed into Israel on a killing rampage on October 7.
Israeli jets bombed a section of the road leaving large craters, a resident told news agency AFP.
The tanks stayed for just over an hour and cars soon returned to the highway, driving onto the verge in the parts where craters made the road unusable, the news agency said in its report.
