US Vice President Kamala Harris called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Sunday, marking a change in the tone of the US administration. Harris is set to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz on Monday to discuss matters.
US Vice President Kamala Harris urged an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, upping the pressure on key ally Israel as heavy fighting continues in the Palestinian territory.
Harris’s comments on Sunday, 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 in around one week.
Envoys from the United States, Qatar and Hamas were in Cairo for the latest round of talks over a proposal to pause the five-month-old war.
According to a senior US official, Israel broadly accepted the terms, which would see stepped-up aid deliveries and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Several sticking points reportedly remain, including Hamas’ insistence that Israeli forces entirely withdraw from the devastated territory.
“Hamas claims it wants a ceasefire. Well, there is a deal on the table,” 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.”
Pressure for a truce mounted after attempted aid deliveries became into scenes of tragedy, and convoys failed to reach families gripped by food shortages in the north.
After UN warnings of famine in Gaza, the United States started airdropping 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 wrote on social media platform X on Sunday.
‘Only Civilians’
Harris and Blinken are both due to meet with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington on Monday.
The former Israeli military chief, a centrist and longtime rival of Netanyahu, will also meet White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan.
A White House official said that 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’ October 7 attack on Israel, there has been no letup to the pummeling of Gaza.
Late on Sunday, an AFP correspondent reported several air strikes in southern Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Yunis.
Truce Talks
A Hamas official said that the group wants the ceasefire deal to include “the entry of at least 400 to 500 trucks per day” carrying food, medicine and fuel.
Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas official, told Qatar’s Al-Araby TV that the group insisted on a complete, rather than “temporary,” ceasefire and on “ending the aggression against our people.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected pulling troops out of Gaza before Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed.
Netanyahu faced mounting calls to secure the release of the hostages, from their desperate families and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.
Israel, which has so far announced no plans to join the Egypt talks, demanded that Hamas provide it with a list of all 130 remaining captives, including more than 30 who are feared dead.
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TIB With AFP (Adel ZAANOUN/Mathieu Gorse)
