US vice-president Kamala Harris has bluntly called out Israel for not doing enough to ease a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza as the Biden administration faces increasing pressure to rein in its close ally while it wages war with Hamas militias, The Guardian has reported.
Harris was speaking in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, (Bloody Sunday service) where state troopers beat US civil rights marchers nearly six decades ago. She called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept a deal to release hostages in return for a 6-week cessation of hostilities.
Reacting to Kamala Harris' statement on X, Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece and economist, queries, "How about stopping deliveries of bombs to Israel Ms Harris?" He went on to add, "You are elevating hypocrisy to a new level by arming the hand that you then accuse of killing."
Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, news agency According to the Associated Press, approximately 80% of the 2.3 million population has been displaced from their homes, and UN agencies warn that hundreds of thousands are at risk of famine.
The AP also reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being held accountable by many Israelis for his failure to prevent the cross-border raid by Hamas on October 7th. This raid resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and the capture of around 250 individuals, including women, children, and older adults, who were taken into Gaza, as stated by Israeli authorities.