The Israeli government has not confirmed the specific claim that Hamas attackers cut off the heads of babies during their shock attack on Saturday, an Israeli official told CNN, contradicting a previous public statement.

"There have been cases of Hamas militants carrying out beheadings and other ISIS-style atrocities. However, we cannot confirm if the victims were men or women, soldiers or civilians, adults or children," the official said.

The explosive allegations that children had been decapitated at the kibbutz of Kfar Aza emerged Tuesday in Israeli media. Israel Defense Forces later described the scene as a "massacre" in a statement to CNN. Women, children toddlers and the elderly were "brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action," the IDF said.

Tal Heinrich, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Wednesday that babies and toddlers had been found with their "heads decapitated" in Kfar Aza. An IDF spokesman later in the day also said that terrorists had cut off the heads of children.

"We know that there were dead babies. There is evidence that there was decapitation. I don't know how to verify numbers or how they were killed," IDF spokesman Nir Dar said.

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