The White House on Thursday issued a clarification on the US President’s statement regarding having seen pictures of “terrorists beheading children” in Israel — a claim that has not yet been verified — saying that Joe Biden was actually referring to “media reports”.

The murder allegation, which started doing the rounds earlier this week, was run by several media outlets but it was never confirmed by Israeli authorities.

According to the NBC News, President Biden, in a meeting with Jewish leaders on Wednesday, had painted a “vivid picture of the horrors” of the ongoing conflict.

“I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” it quoted him as saying.

However, two senior administration officials said today that Biden was “referring to reports from Israel about beheaded children and cited several media reports of beheadings”.

NBC News said it had not confirmed those reports.

The allegation of “beheaded” babies, which has been used to condemn Hamas’ armed offensive against Israel, first came to light on Tuesday when the official government @Israel account on X published a video from i24NEWS reporter Nicole Zedek about the devastation at the Kfar Aza kibbutz.

The reporter said “40 babies murdered”. Subsequently, several websites, including CBS and the Times of India, featured stories alleging the beheadings of more than three dozen babies.

However, the Anadolu Agency [quoted]4] an Israeli army spokesperson as saying that there was no confirmation of the claim.