As Israeli tanks roll into the southern city of Rafah in Gaza and Palestinians reel from the deadly airstrike on a refugee tent camp there this weekend, the White House said that President Joe Biden has no changes in his policy of supporting Israel’s war effort even as Vice President Kamala Harris lamented the killings and some Democratic lawmakers demanded Biden halt U.S. military aid.

“Tragic doesn’t even begin to describe it and that’s how I feel about it,” Harris told Spectrum News at the White House on Tuesday before walking away without responding to questions about whether Israel crossed the president's previously stated "red line."

“Tragic doesn’t even begin to describe it and that’s how I feel about it,” VP responds to Israeli strike in Rafah over the weekend. pic.twitter.com/ZDvtR8O6ju

— Maddie Gannon (@maddiegannon3) May 28, 2024

At a briefing later in the day, national security spokesperson John Kirby said “as a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to. It just happened. The Israelis are going to investigate it. We’re going to be taking great interest in what they find in that investigation and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Whatever red line Biden may or may not have, Kirby said the Israeli strike had not gone against the administration’s wishes that Israel stave off a major ground invasion. 

“We haven’t seen that at this point,” Kirby said. “I want to just end this answer by making it very clear that regardless, every single loss of innocent life is tragic and every single loss of innocent life should be prevented as much as possible.”

The Sunday strike on a tent camp killed at least 45 people, half of whom were women and children, according to local health officials. CNN and other outlets verified videos circulating on social media showing the charred bodies of children and a headless toddler in the aftermath of the strike.

“This was intentional. You don't accidentally kill massive amounts of children and their families over and over again and get to say, ‘It was a mistake,’” wrote Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat and the only Palestinian-American in Congress, on social media on Monday. “Genocidal maniac [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu told us he wants to [ethnically] cleanse Palestinians. When are you going to believe him [Biden]?”

The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had seen some of the images from the strike, but Kirby could not say if Biden, who has spoken repeatedly about being moved by images of Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel last October that triggered the war, had seen images of dead Palestinians from this weekend. When asked by a reporter “how many more charred corpses does he have to see before the president considers the change in policy,” Kirby said he took “a little offense at the question.”

“No civilian casualties is the right number of civilian casualties. And this is not something that we've turned a blind eye to, nor has it been something we've ignored or neglected to raise with our Israeli counterparts, including… this weekend as a result of this particular strike,” Kirby said. “Now, they're investigating it. So let's let them investigate it and see what they come up with.”

Israel claimed on Tuesday the strike targeted two senior Hamas militants and used two 37-pound bombs that they say triggered a secondary explosion on the ground that caused a fire. They claimed the bombs were too small to cause the fire. Kirby emphasized the words “initial findings” multiple times as he discussed the Israeli investigation on Tuesday. Former Obama administration National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor wrote on social media “to never believe the initial claims about these air strikes (or that they'll actually be investigated).”

By killing the Hamas militants, Israeli Defense Force spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday, the strike “saved lives.” 

After the strike, Netanyahu said it was the result of a "tragic mishap."

Earlier on Tuesday and late on Monday night, more Israeli strikes killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside of Rafah, witnesses and health officials told the Associated Press.

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly eight months of fighting, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count but says most are women and children. Around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced and United Nations officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine. One million have fled Rafah in recent days after fleeing there originally, according to the United Nations and the White House.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and allied fighters attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 civilians and abducting around 250.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called the Sunday strike “an indefensible atrocity” and said it was “done in open defiance of [Biden’s] red line” and an order by the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s top court, that Israel halt their military operation in Gaza. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., also said it was “a clear crossing of a red line.” Both members of Congress, along with fellow progressives in Texas Rep. Greg Casar and California Rep. Barbara Lee, called on Biden to cut off weapons shipments to Israel. The U.S. has delivered billions in weapons to Israel in the months since the war began. 

“Security assistance continues to flow,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., denounced the strikes and reupped their calls for a cease-fire, but stopped short of calling for cutting off military aid to Israel. 

The response from Democratic leadership was more muted. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Tuesday he was “deeply saddened by the killing of innocent civilians” and urged unspecified protections for Palestinian civilians while adding “every single hostage must be released” and “Hamas must be defeated.”

“We must find an immediate path to a just and lasting peace,” Jeffries said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was not asked about the strike at an unrelated press conference in upstate New York on Tuesday and has yet to comment publicly. His office did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.

Beyond Congress, one influential Democratic voice on foreign policy urged Biden to change course.

“It's hard to fathom what else needs to happen for the U.S. to finally and fully withdraw support for a military operation that is this utterly devastating in its human consequences while failing to achieve any of its stated objectives,” wrote Ben Rhodes, one of former President Barack Obama’s closest advisors who continues to travel the globe with Biden’s former running mate and who worked on foreign policy in for all eight years of Obama’s time in office.

For their part, Republicans have largely stayed quiet about the strike in Rafah, remain supportive of Israel’s goal of exterminating Hamas and insistent on the continued flow of U.S. military aid. Former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee did not mention the strike as he addressed reporters on Tuesday morning at his New York City criminal hush-money trial. 

One Republican of note was in Israel in the days following the strike: former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the runner-up to Trump in this year’s Republican primary.

“Finish them,” Haley wrote on Israeli bombs during a visit to a military base. “America [hearts] Israel Always.”

Spectrum News’ Maddie Gannon and the Associated Press contributed to this report.