Israel must increase the flow of aid to Gaza without excuses, Kamala Harris

US Vice President Kamala Harris called on the Israeli government, on Sunday, to make more efforts to increase the flow of aid to Gaza without excuses, saying that the residents of the Strip are suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe and that many innocent Palestinians have been killed and what we see daily in Gaza is devastating, noting at the same time that There is an agreement on the table and Hamas needs to agree to it. In turn, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the flow of aid to Gaza must be increased to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation.

Harris said that Israel is not doing enough to alleviate a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, while President Joe Biden’s government faces pressure to rein in its close ally, which is waging war on Hamas.

In a speech during a visit to Selma, Alabama, Harris urged Hamas to accept an agreement to release the hostages that would implement a six-week ceasefire and allow more aid to flow.

But she directed most of her comments at Israel, in what appeared to be the sharpest comments yet from senior leaders in the US government who called on Israel to ease the situation in Gaza.

“People are starving in Gaza,” Harris said. “The conditions are inhumane, and our shared humanity requires us to act.” She added,

“The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. There are no excuses.”

Her comments reflected extreme frustration, if not despair, within the US government over the war, which hurt President Biden among left-leaning voters as he seeks re-election this year.

Harris said Israel must open new border crossings, not impose “unnecessary restrictions” on aid delivery, protect humanitarian workers and convoys from becoming targets, and work to restore
basic services and strengthen the system so that more food, water and fuel can reach those in need. “.

The United States carried out its first airdrop of aid in Gaza on Saturday, and Harris is scheduled to meet with Israeli Defense Cabinet member Benny Gantz on Monday at the White House, where she is expected to deliver a similar direct message.

For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called on Monday for increasing the flow of aid to Gaza to alleviate the humanitarian situation, which he described as dire.

He added through his account on the X platform that the people of Gaza are in dire need of more food, water, and other aid.

Blinken stressed that the United States is “working to deliver more aid to Gaza through all available channels, including airdrops.”

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported earlier on Sunday that “new difficulties” had arisen in negotiations to reach a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.

The authority quoted Israeli officials as saying, “The mediators presented Hamas with proposals different from those formulated in the Paris talks, but Hamas rejected the offer.”

The Commission stated that the head of the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad), David Barnea, received a phone call from the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, in which he informed him that the response he received from Hamas “insisted on not giving answers to the issue of transferring the names of the kidnapped Israelis who are still alive.

“A new condition may harm the negotiations”

The commission noted that the condition of receiving a list of the names of detainees was not made by an official decision from the government, but rather came at a request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the head of the Mossad, which Israeli officials considered “a new condition that may harm” the negotiations.

Cairo News TV reported a short while ago, quoting a high-ranking source, the end of the first day of discussions taking place with the participation of Egypt, the United States, Qatar and Hamas in Cairo, which aim to reach a truce and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the movement.

The source added that negotiations will resume on Monday, without giving any further details.

Arab and Palestinian party sources said on Friday that the negotiations came after “progress” was made in the round of technical discussions that took place in Qatar, in which Israeli officers participated in indirect negotiations with Hamas under the auspices of Egyptian, Qatari, and American mediators.

Israeli military operations in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 led to the deaths of 30,410 people, the vast majority of them civilians, women and children, according to the
Ministry of Health in the Strip.

International calls for a ceasefire are increasing in the face of the difficult situation of the Palestinians in the Strip, which is threatened by famine and besieged, and which is subjected to continuous Israeli
bombing.