Harris to meet with key Israeli official in DC amid White House push for Gaza cease-fire
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to meet with Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz at the White House Monday, a day after calling for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza.
A White House official said the talks are expected to focus on Palestinian civilian casualties, securing a temporary cease-fire and the release of hostages, as well as increasing aid into the enclave.
“The vice president will express her concern over the safety of as many as 1.5 million people in Rafah,” the official said, adding that Israel has a “right to defend itself in the face of continued Hamas terrorist threats.”
In a statement, Gantz confirmed that he would meet with Harris, as well as White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
Harris used a speech Sunday to issue her cease-fire call, one of the strongest appeals yet from the Biden administration to halt the war.
“Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate cease-fire,” Harris said to loud applause at a gathering to commemorate a major civil rights anniversary in Selma, Alabama.
Harris also told the crowd that the “threat that Hamas poses to the people of Israel must be eliminated.”
A delegation from Hamas was in Cairo on Sunday to discuss a possible weekslong cease-fire in the nearly five-month war with Israel. But Israeli media reported that Israeli mediators boycotted the talks after Hamas rejected its demand for a full list of names of hostages who are still alive.
The Biden administration said it hopes to have a cease-fire deal by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10.
An agreement would bring about the first extended pause in the fighting since a weeklong truce in late November. Under proposed terms, dozens of the remaining 100 or so hostages held by Hamas would be freed in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel.
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A U.S. official told reporters, “The path to a cease-fire right now literally at this hour is straightforward. And there’s a deal on the table. There’s a framework deal.”
Israel has vowed to end the threat of another Hamas assault like the October 7 terror attack on the Jewish state that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s counteroffensive since then has killed more than 30,500 people in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
If a truce is agreed, it would enable scaled up humanitarian aid into Gaza, where the situation is growing more desperate by the day. The health ministry says at least 16 children have died of malnutrition in recent days as “famine spreads” in the north.
