President Joe Biden on Tuesday forcefully denounced the reported assaults against Israeli girls and women by Hamas terrorists following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, calling on the world to condemn such conduct “without equivocation” and “without exception.”

Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Boston, Biden noted that in recent weeks, female survivors and witnesses to the attacks have shared “horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty.”

“Reports of women [assaulted] — repeatedly [assaulted] — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them,” Biden said. “It is appalling.”

Israel has said it is investigating several cases of assault from the Hamas attack on Israel. Witnesses and medical experts have said that Hamas terrorists committed a series of attacks against women before killing the victims in the Oct. 7 attack.

Experts have been piecing together evidence in recent weeks in a case that is complicated because there are no known victims to testify and limited forensic evidence.

Biden’s comments come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has sought to put greater focus on the violence against women it says Hamas committed during the Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 people on Israeli soil and led to another 240 being taken hostage. Some recently released hostages have shared testimonies of assault and abuse during their time in Gaza.

Netanyahu railed against the lack of international response during a press conference on Tuesday evening.

“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, you’ve heard of the [assault] of Israeli women, horrible atrocities… mutilation — where the hell are you?” asked Netanyahu.

Israel hosted a special event at the United Nations on Monday where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg were among those who criticized what they called a global failure to support women who were assaulted and in some cases killed.

The comments from Biden came one day after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the terrorists’ assaults on women “reprehensible.”

Jean-Pierre, who underscored that she was speaking on behalf of the president, was responding to a question about comments made by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a California Democrat, during a CNN interview in which she responded to a question about assault by Palestinian militants by saying, “I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians, 15,000 Palestinians have been killed.”

As a senator, Biden was the author of the Violence Against Women Act, which was signed into law in 1994. He referenced his work on the issue as a lawmaker as he spoke out against the allegations of assaults on females by Hamas.

“The world can’t just look away at what’s going on,” Biden told donors. He added, “It’s on all of us — government, international organizations, civil society and businesses — to forcefully condemn the violence [against women] of Hamas terrorists without equivocation. Without equivocation, without exception.”

(AP)