Kamala Harris tells Israel fighting must stop now
US Vice-President Kamala Harris has demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, upping the pressure on Israel.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris has demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, upping the pressure on Israel as heavy fighting raged in the Palestinian territory.
Ms Harris’s comments, the most forceful to date by a US administration official, came as Washington led a push to lock in a truce before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that begins next week. Envoys from the US, Qatar and Hamas are in Cairo for the latest round of talks over a proposal to pause the war.
But it was reported on Monday that the talks were in danger, with Hamas refusing to provide a list of the 130 remaining hostages in Gaza – including more than 30 feared dead – and Israel, as a result, refusing to join the talks. According to Israel’s Channel 12, the war cabinet agreed there was no point in sending a delegation given Hamas’ refusal and its demand that the Israeli armed forces entirely withdraw from Gaza.
According to the Times of Israel, the first phase of the proposed deal provides for the release of 40 of the living hostages during a six-week truce in exchange for 400 Palestinian prisoners.
Complicating negotiations is the non-appearance of Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, who has not been in touch with negotiators for at least a week, and without whose approval the deal may not be implemented.
“Hamas claims it wants a ceasefire. Well, there is a deal on the table,” Ms Harris said.
Taking an unusually sharp tone, she demanded Israel “do more to significantly increase the flow of aid” into Gaza, where she said people are starving and the conditions “inhumane”.
“Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire,” she said. Pressure for a truce has mounted after attempted aid deliveries have descended into scenes of tragedy, and convoys have failed to reach families gripped by food shortages in the north.
After UN warnings of famine in Gaza, the US started air-dropping food rations on Saturday, following in the steps of Jordan and some other countries.
“It is imperative that we expand the flow of aid into Gaza to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Ms Harris and Mr Blinken were to meet Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington on Monday.
The former Israeli military chief, a centrist and long-time rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will also meet White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
A White House official said the discussions would include the need for a hostage deal, temporary ceasefire and expanding aid flows into Gaza. Despite the latest push to halt the fighting sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, there has been no let up to the pummelling of Gaza.
Several airstrikes were carried out in southern Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Yunison Monday. Earlier, two of the latest victims, twin babies Naeem and Wissam Abu Anza, were buried as their mother Rania wept in agony.
A relative, Shehda Abu Anza, said “only civilians” were in the house when it was bombed, killing 14 members of one family.
“All of them were sleeping when suddenly a missile hit and destroyed the whole house,” he said as residents searched the rubble. The infants were among 30,410 fatalities reported by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry since Israel launched military operations to eliminate Hamas last October.
Witnesses also reported an Israeli strike hit an aid truck in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah on Sunday, killing several people.
“We did not know what to do, whether to run away or to rescue the people in the truck. Then they hit it with the second missile,” said witness Reyad al-Quraan.
Contacted about the incident, the Israeli military said “it was not an aid truck that was struck”, but did not elaborate.
On Thursday, more than 100 people were killed in chaotic scenes around a convoy of aid trucks in Gaza City.
AFP
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