Sunday, July 28, 2024 - US Vice President, Kamala Harris says that she would not be “silent” on suffering in Gaza while also touting her pro-Israel bona fides, in comments made shortly after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Her remarks drew furious Israeli complaints that they could
complicate efforts to reach a deal with the Hamas terror group to free hostages
and end the war in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters after what she called a “frank and
constructive” meeting with Netanyahu at the White House, Harris said it was
time to end the “devastating” war sparked by the Hamas terror group’s brutal
October 7 attack on Israel, in comments that some saw as a sign of a possible
shift in Washington’s stance as Harris plots her own path as the presumptive
Democratic nominee for president.
“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.”
Netanyahu, who has been in Washington since Monday, met
separately with US President Joe Biden and with Harris in the White House on
Thursday. He was also slated to meet the Republican presidential nominee,
Donald Trump on Friday.
In a speech to the US Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu once
again stressed the need for a “total victory” over Hamas.
In her press conference after the Netanyahu meeting, Harris
also said “Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters.”
The vice president noted that she pressed Netanyahu on the
“dire” situation in Gaza during their 40-minute meeting in Washington, while
also stressing the importance of reaching a deal to free hostages and end the
war.
Harris said she “expressed with the prime minister my
serious concern about the scale of human suffering and Gaza, including the
death of far too many innocent civilians. And I made clear my serious concern
about the dire humanitarian situation there.”
Harris said there had been “hopeful movement in the talks to
secure” a hostage deal, which she said would end the war and pave the way for
Palestinian statehood.
“As I just told Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.”
“It is time for this war to
end, and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released,
the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can
exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination,” Harris said.
Harris also stressed pro-Israel points during her remarks,
branding Hamas a “brutal terror organization” that triggered the ongoing war
with its October 7 onslaught, and noting that it included “horrific acts of
sexual violence.”
The vice president made a point of reading out the names of
all eight American-Israel hostages still held captive by Hamas, something no
other US official has done.
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