SELMA, United States: The Vice President of United States Kamala Harris on Sunday stressed the need to accept a proposed six-week ceasefire agreement in the Israel-Hamas war, while denouncing Israel over insufficient aid deliveries into Gaza.
Harris during a speech in Selma, Alabama said that after the immense scale of human suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks, which is currently on the table.
A senior US official on Saturday confirmed that Israel had broadly accepted the peace deal, which would see a six-week pause in hostilities if Hamas agrees to free vulnerable captives it holds.
Harris calling on Hamas to accept the deal said that this will free the captives out and get a significant amount of humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
She added that Hamas claims it wants a ceasefire but, there is a deal on the table so they need to agree to the proposed deal.
The vice president also criticized Israel, the strongest by a top US official, asking government of Benjamin Netanyahu to take steps to increase assistance in Gaza.
Harris said that the Israeli government must take more steps to enhance the flow of aid in Gaza and there are no excuses.
Israel asked to open new border crossings for aid deliveries
She demanded Israel to open new border crossings and must not place any needless restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Harris made the remarks at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where a protest march by hundreds of peaceful activists was violently crushed by police on March 7, 1965.
According to Gaza health authorities more than 30,410 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the Israeli offensive started on October 7.
Meanwhile the United Nations Security Council has once again underscored the need to protect civilians in war-hit Gaza in the wake of the tragic incident at an aid convoy on Thursday.
