The U.S. said Thursday that confirming the authenticity of images of dead children shared by the Israeli Prime Minister's office is not within their purview but it has no reason to doubt their genuineness.
During a White House press briefing, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked if the U.S. had independently verified the photos published earlier in the day on the office's X account.
"I don't think we're going to be in the business of having to validate or approve those images. They're coming from the prime minister of Israel, and we have absolutely no reason to doubt their authenticity," Kirby responded.
When another reporter asked about recent remarks by President Joe Biden, who said: "I never thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children" and whether he had seen them, Kirby said he does not have anything to add to what the president said.
"I mean, again, you guys have all reported on these atrocities. Some of your outlets have even run some of these images. They're plain for everybody to see. And the prime minister's office has spoken to that. Even before today, they'd spoken to these kinds of atrocities. And again, today, the prime minister showed Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken some additional grotesque imagery."
When another reporter pointed out what caused unverified information to spread before the Iraq war and asked what the U.S. administration did to separate false news from facts, Kirby said they are taking misinformation seriously.
"We take very, very seriously the need to be as factual and certainly truthful as we can possibly be," he added.
"It's obvious what Hamas has proven it is willing to do to innocent Israeli citizens. We're not going to shy away from talking about the grotesque nature here of what these terrorists have done," he said.
