Kamala Harris has signaled a major shift in US policy on Gaza.
The presidential candidate told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike a peace deal and insisted she would "not be silent" about suffering in the Palestinian enclave, AFP reports.
In a departure from outgoing President Joe Biden's playbook of mostly behind-the-scenes pressure on Israel, the vice president said after meeting Netanyahu that it was time to end the "devastating" war.
"What has happened in Gaza in the last 9 months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for a second, third or fourth time," Harris said.
"We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot afford to be numb in the face of suffering, and I will not be silent."
The 59-year-old Harris - now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after Biden said over the weekend, he would not run in the November election - said she pressed Netanyahu about the dire situation during the "candid" meeting.
She said she had "expressed to the prime minister her grave concern about the scale of human suffering and Gaza, including the deaths of too many innocent civilians."
"And I made clear my grave concern about the dire humanitarian situation there," she concluded.
Harris also called for the creation of a Palestinian state and went on to urge both Netanyahu and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and hostage release to end the war.
"As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it's time to get this deal done," the vice president stressed.
Harris' candid comments contrasted sharply with the largely friendly greetings between Biden and Netanyahu earlier in the day, though they masked months of tension between the two men as well as questions about the U.S. president's relevance.
"From a proud Zionist Jew to a proud Zionist Irish American, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel," Netanyahu said in Biden's honor at the start of the Oval Office meeting.
"And I look forward to discussing with you today and working with you in the months ahead," he added.
In the past, Harris has been more outspoken on Gaza than Biden, and there has been speculation that she may take a tougher approach toward Israel. Earlier, officials denied there was any "daylight" between her and Biden.
The White House said Biden would tell Netanyahu that a "compromise" was needed to strike a deal after the Israeli prime minister delivered an impassioned speech to the US Congress in which he vowed "total victory" against Hamas.
"The president will confirm to Prime Minister Netanyahu that he believes we have to get there and that we have to get there soon," spokesman John Kirby told reporters. | BGNES
