US vice-president Kamala Harris pressured Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday to help reach a Gaza ceasefire deal that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians, striking a tougher tone than US president Joe Biden.
“It is time for this war to end,” Ms Harris said in a televised statement after she held face-to-face talks with Mr Netanyahu.
Ms Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee after Mr Biden dropped out of the election race on Sunday, did not mince words about the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza after nine months of war between Israel and Hamas militants.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” she said.
Matt Gaetz perched on the tightrope between political glory and infamy
Donald Trump’s return adds urgency and uncertainty to third winter of full Russia-Ukraine war
Defending Donald Trump in legal litany pays off handsomely for new US deputy attorney general
If Democrats want to win the next US election, they should listen to Bernie Sanders
Ms Harris’s remarks were sharp and serious in tone and raised the question of whether she would be more aggressive in dealing with Mr Netanyahu if elected president on November 5th. But analysts do not expect there would be a major shift in US policy toward Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East.
The conflict began on October 7th when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 captives, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's retaliatory attack in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people and caused a humanitarian calamity with most of the coastal enclave levelled, people displaced from their homes, famine and a shortage of emergency relief.
Mr Biden met Mr Netanyahu earlier and told him that he needed to close gaps to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and remove obstacles in the flow of aid, said a readout of the meeting provided by the White House.
Mr Netanyahu will meet Ms Harris’s Republican rival, Donald Trump, on Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
A ceasefire has been the subject of negotiations for months. US officials believe the parties are closer than ever before to an agreement for a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release by Hamas of women, sick, elderly and wounded hostages.
[ Biden presses for Gaza ceasefire in talks with NetanyahuOpens in new window ]
“There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal, and as I just told prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” Ms Harris said.
Although as vice-president she has mostly echoed Mr Biden in firmly backing Israel’s right to defend itself, she made clear on Thursday that she was losing patience with Israel’s military approach.
“Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters,” Ms Harris said.
In March, she bluntly stated that Israel was not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe” during its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave. Later, she did not rule out “consequences” for Israel if it launched a full-scale invasion of refugee-packed Rafah in southern Gaza.
The Gaza conflict has splintered the Democratic Party, and sparked months of protests at Biden events. A drop in support among Arab Americans could hurt Democratic chances in Michigan, one of a handful of states likely to decide the November 5th election.
In a nod to those concerns, Ms Harris urged Americans to help “encourage efforts to understand the complexity, the nuance and the history of the region”.
“To everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you,” she said. “Let's get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war.”
In an Oval Office address on Wednesday, Mr Biden cited a desire for unity in the Democratic Party as it seeks to defeat Mr Trump as a main reason he decided not to seek re-election but to instead support Ms Harris for the 2024 race.
Ms Harris maintains closer ties to Democratic progressives, some of whom have urged Mr Biden to attach conditions to US weapons shipments to Israel out of concern for high Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza. The US is a major arms supplier to Israel and has protected the country from critical United Nations votes.
Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu met together with the families of Americans held by Hamas, who expressed hope for a ceasefire including a release of hostages. “We came today with a sense of urgency,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son is a captive. – Reuters