US vice-president Kamala Harris was criticised in Israel on Friday after she called for a quick end to the war in Gaza following her meeting with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Ms Harris, set to be the Democratic nominee for November’s presidential election, made her comments while speaking to reporters after her White House meeting with Mr Netanyahu on Thursday. She raised “serious concerns” about casualties in Gaza and the humanitarian situation there.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be numb to the suffering and I will not be silent. It is time for this war to end,” she said, stressing the need for a path to a two-state solution.
“It’s to be hoped that the vice-president’s comments are not interpreted by Hamas as meaning that there’s daylight between the United States and Israel, which would make a [ceasefire] deal less likely,” a senior Israeli official said in response.
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“Someone should update her on what happened to peaceful civilians, children, women and infants who were slaughtered in their homes and burned alive [in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7th],” said Amichai Chikli, a minister from Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party. “It would be wise for anyone aspiring to lead the free world to know how to distinguish between cause and effect, good and evil.”
Mr Netanyahu met in Florida on Friday with former president Donald Trump, who has also urged Israel to end the Gaza war quickly. This was the first meeting between the two in four years.
Mr Trump greeted Mr Netanyahu warmly at his Mar-a-Lago estate and after their talks said he had “always had a very good relationship” with the Israeli leader. Mr Trump was furious in 2020 after Mr Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in an election that the former president claimed was stolen.
With Mr Netanyahu alongside, Mr Trump also said that Ms Harris’s comments on Israel the previous day had been “disrespectful”.
[ Kamala Harris pushes Netanyahu to ease suffering in Gaza: ‘I will not be silent’Opens in new window ]
Two main issues appear to be holding up an agreement on a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Gaza war. Hamas is against Israel’s proposal for a screening mechanism that would allow non-armed residents to return to their homes in north Gaza. Differences also remain over the arrangements on the Philidelphi route – the border road between Gaza and Egypt – and the plan for the Rafah crossing, seized by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in May.
“Netanyahu is still stalling. There’s no change in his stance so far,” said Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri. Israel denied claims from Egyptian and Palestinian sources that it had raised new demands in the ceasefire negotiations.
As Israel continued its military offensive in Gaza, the IDF said it had destroyed a tunnel, over a kilometre long, in Beit Lahia in the northern strip, which it said was built beneath a residential neighbourhood.
Militants on Friday fired three rockets into southern Israel; one was intercepted and two landed in open areas, causing a fire.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7th. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on that day. Some 111 hostages remain in Gaza and Israel has confirmed the deaths of 39 of them.
The World Health Organisation is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children from being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples.
“While no cases of polio have been recorded yet without immediate action it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.
Normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of fighting, putting young children at risk. The move follows the decision by Israel’s military to vaccinate soldiers serving in Gaza over the coming weeks.
The United Nations also reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.
