US calling for immediate truce
GAZA: ISRAEL ‘BROADLY ACCEPTS TERMS OF PAUSE’
→ Deal is on the table – US vice-president tells Hamas.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris is urging an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, upping the pressure on key ally Israel as heavy fighting raged in the Palestinian territory.
Harris’ comments on Sunday, the most forceful to date by a US administration official, came as Washington led a push to lock in a truce before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that begins in about one week.
Envoys from the United States, Qatar and Hamas were in Cairo for the latest round of talks over a proposal to pause the five-monthold war. According to a senior US official, Israel has broadly accepted the terms, which would see more aid deliveries and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Several sticking points reportedly remain, including Hamas’ insistence that Israeli forces entirely withdraw from the territory. “Hamas claims it wants a ceasefire. Well, there is a deal on the table,” Harris said.
Taking an unusually sharp tone, she demanded Israel “do more to significantly increase the flow of aid” into Gaza, where she said people are starving and the conditions “inhumane”.
“Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire.”
Pressure for a truce has mounted after attempted aid deliveries have descended into scenes of tragedy, and convoys have failed to reach families gripped by food shortages in the north.
After UN warnings of famine in Gaza, the US started air-dropping food rations on Saturday, following Jordan and some other countries. "It is imperative that we expand the flow of aid into Gaza,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on X on Sunday.
Harris and Blinken were both due to meet with Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington yesterday.
A White House official said the discussions would include the need for a hostage deal, temporary ceasefire and expanding aid flows into Gaza.
Despite the latest push to halt the fighting, there has been no letup to the pummelling of Gaza.
The UN Security Council has urged “the immediate and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale”.