US Vice President Kamala Harris called on the Israeli government, on Sunday, for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and to forcefully pressure Israel to increase the flow of aid to alleviate what she described as “inhuman” conditions and a “humanitarian catastrophe” among the Palestinian people.
Commenting on the killing of dozens of Palestinians by Israeli fire and a stampede in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Harris said in a speech during a visit to the state of Alabama: “We saw hungry and desperate people approaching aid trucks, simply trying to secure food for their families after weeks of almost no aid reaching northern Gaza.” They were met with gunfire and chaos,” according to Reuters.
Harris’s comments are among the sharpest yet from senior leaders in the US government who called on Israel to ease the situation in Gaza.
In her speech, Harris urged the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to accept an agreement to release the hostages that would implement a six-week ceasefire and allow more aid to flow.
“People are starving in Gaza,” Harris said. “The conditions are inhumane, and our shared humanity obligates us to act.” She added, “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. There are no excuses.”
An Israeli newspaper reported that Israel boycotted ceasefire talks in Gaza on Sunday after Hamas rejected its demand to send a complete list containing the names of the hostages who are still alive.
“Hamas says it wants a ceasefire,” Harris said. “Well, there is an agreement on the table. And as we said, Hamas needs to agree to that agreement.” She continued, “Let us implement the ceasefire. Let us return the hostages to their families. Let us provide immediate relief to the people of Gaza.” The United States classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The killing of more than 110 Palestinians in Gaza City, on Thursday, during an aid distribution operation during which Israeli forces opened fire on the Palestinians, sparked a widespread wave of condemnation from Western and Arab countries, which repeated the call for an immediate ceasefire, and some of them demanded an investigation.
According to what Agence France-Presse reported from an eyewitness, the massacre of aid trucks occurred at the Nabulsi roundabout in western Gaza City when many Palestinians “rushed” in an attempt to obtain the scarce aid that had arrived in their area since the start of the war.
He told Agence France-Presse, “The trucks filled with aid approached some (Israeli) army tanks that were in the area, and the crowds rushed toward the trucks.”
The witness, who requested to remain anonymous, continued, “The soldiers opened fire on the crowds when people approached the tanks.”
On Thursday, Israeli sources confirmed to Agence France-Presse that Israeli soldiers opened fire on crowds in the Gaza Strip who approached humanitarian aid trucks after they felt “threatened.”
The sources said that many people “approached the forces working to secure the trucks, in a way that posed a threat to the forces who responded with live ammunition.”
Sunday, a spokesman said Israeli army The army completed a preliminary review into civilian deaths while receiving aid in Gaza on Thursday, concluding that forces “did not target” the aid convoy and that most Palestinians “died as a result of the stampede.”
The war broke out on October 7, following an unprecedented attack launched by the movement on southern Israel, killing more than 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse count based on Israeli data.
About 250 hostages were also taken, and Israel says 130 of them are still in Gaza, and 31 of them are believed to have been killed.
Israel responded by bombing the Gaza Strip and conducting a ground invasion, which led to the death of 30,035 people and the injury of 70,457 others, according to the latest figures issued by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.
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