US Vice President Kamala Harris
pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to help reach a
Gaza ceasefire deal that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians,
striking a tougher tone than President Joe Biden.
"It is time for this war to
end," Harris said in a televised statement after she held face-to-face
talks with Netanyahu.
Harris, the likely Democratic
presidential nominee after 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.
Harris' remarks were sharp and
serious in tone and raised the question of whether she would be more aggressive
in dealing with Netanyahu if elected president on Nov. 5. 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 Oct. 7 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 leveled, people displaced from their homes, famine and a
shortage of emergency relief.
Biden met with 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, according to a readout of the meeting provided by
the White House.
Netanyahu will meet Harris'
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.
"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,"
Harris said.
Although as vice president she has
mostly echoed 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," 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.
A DIVIDED PARTY
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 Nov. 5 election.
In a nod to those concerns, 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, Biden cited a desire for unity in
the Democratic Party as it seeks to defeat Trump as a main reason he decided
not to seek reelection but to instead support Harris for the 2024 race.
Harris maintains closer ties to
Democratic progressives, some of whom have urged 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.
Biden and 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.