U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris called Sunday for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza, in one of the strongest appeals yet from the Biden administration to halt the war.
“Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate cease-fire,” Harris said to loud applause at a gathering to commemorate a major civil rights anniversary in Selma, Alabama.
The administration has been working with Egypt and Qatar to mediate a six-week pause in the fighting to get the remaining hostages held by Hamas out and to get scaled-up aid into Gaza, where the U.N. has warned that famine is looming.
Speaking at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where 59 years ago state troopers beat U.S. civil rights marchers in what is known as Bloody Sunday, Harris said people in Gaza are starving.
“The conditions are inhumane, and our common humanity compels us to act,” she said. “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses.”
On Saturday, a joint operation by the U.S. and Jordanian Air Forces air dropped 38,000 meals along Gaza’s coastline. A senior U.S. official said air drops will be part of a “sustained effort” with international partners to scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
Humanitarians use air drops as a method of last resort, because they are expensive, complex operations and cannot deliver the volume of aid that a truck could. Harris’s appeal comes ahead of a planned meeting Monday with Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz at the White House.
Harris told the crowd in Selma that the “threat that Hamas poses to the people of Israel must be eliminated.” A White House official said the talks are expected to focus on Palestinian civilian casualties, securing a temporary cease-fire and the release of hostages, as well as increasing aid into the enclave.
