US Vice President Kamala Harris and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a meeting in the Vice President’s ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on 25 July 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP)
- Kamala Harris signalled a shift in US policy on Gaza,
advocating for an end to the conflict and promising not to be silent on
Palestinian suffering after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. - Harris emphasised the urgent need for a ceasefire, the
release of hostages, and the establishment of a Palestinian state. - Her stance diverged from Joe Biden’s more
behind-the-scenes approach to pressuring Israel.
Kamala Harris signalled a major shift in US Gaza policy
Thursday, with the presidential hopeful telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to seal a peace deal and insisting she would not be
“silent” on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave.
Ripping up outgoing President Joe Biden’s playbook of mostly
behind-the-scenes pressure on Israel, the vice president said after meeting
Netanyahu that it was time to end the “devastating” war.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is
devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing
for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,”
Harris told reporters.
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We
cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be
silent.”
The 59-year-old – now the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee after Biden said over the weekend he would not stand in
November’s election – said she pressed Netanyahu on the dire situation in the
“frank” meeting.
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the press following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Vice President’s ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on 25 July 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP)
She said she “expressed with the prime minister my
serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death
of far too many innocent civilians.”
“And I made clear my serious concern about the dire
humanitarian situation there.”
Biden, for his part, held Oval Office talks with Netanyahu
and called on him to swiftly “finalise” a deal on a Gaza ceasefire
and the release of hostages, and “reach a durable end to the war in
Gaza,” according to a White House readout of the meeting.
‘Get this deal done’
Harris also called for the establishment of a Palestinian
state and, similar to Biden, urged both Netanyahu and Hamas to agree to a
ceasefire and hostage release deal to end the war sparked by Hamas’s 7 October
attack on Israel.
She said:
As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.
Harris’s outspoken comments were a stark contrast to the
largely amiable greetings between Biden and Netanyahu earlier in the day, even
if they masked months of tensions between the two men and questions over the US
president’s relevance.
“From a proud Zionist Jew to a proud Zionist Irish
American, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of
support for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said in tribute to Biden at
the start of the Oval Office meeting.
FOLLOW IT LIVE | DEVELOPING: Biden pushes Netanyahu for Gaza ceasefire, with smiles and handshakes
Harris has been more outspoken on Gaza in the past than
Biden and there had been speculation that she could adopt a tougher approach on
Israel. Officials earlier denied there is any “daylight” between her
and the president.
The White House meetings come a day after the Israeli
premier gave a fiery speech to the US Congress in which he vowed “total
victory” against Hamas.
‘More optimistic’
Biden and Netanyahu later met the families of US hostages
held in Gaza, who said they hoped for a possible new ceasefire proposal in the coming
days.
“We feel probably more optimistic than we have since
the first round of releases in late November,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the
father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, told reporters after the meeting.
Protesters chanted slogans outside a ring of metal barriers
erected around the White House, following rowdy protests during Netanyahu’s
speech to lawmakers.
While Biden has kept military aid flowing to Israel since
Hamas’s 7 October attacks, relations with Netanyahu have been deeply strained
by Israel’s conduct during the war and suspicions that he may be stalling on a
deal.
FOLLOW IT LIVE | DEVELOPING: Harris attacks Trump and ‘extremist’ Republicans in speech to teachers
The Hamas attack on 7 October resulted in the deaths of 1 197
people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on
official Israeli figures.
Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 111 are still
being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 39 who the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at
least 39 175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s
health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
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