WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has said that a ceasefire and hostage release deal was needed in Gaza. In an interview with CNN, she reiterated support for Israel and maintained her stance that too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.
“Far too many innocent Palestinian people have been killed, and we have got to get an agreement done,” she told CNN, without offering any change in the current status quo policy.
War on Gaza
Harris’s remarks come as Israeli military and Hamas have agreed to observe three separates, zoned, three-day pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to facilitate the vaccination of about 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said. The vaccination drive is likely to begin on Sunday, the official said.
It said that the campaign will start in central Gaza with a three-day pause in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. WHO officials said that World Health Organization senior official Rik Peeperkorn went on to say that humanitarian pause could be extended in each zone to a fourth day if required.
The WHO on August 23 confirmed that at least one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 poliovirus, the first such case in the Palestinian territory in 25 years. According to the WHO, the pause in fighting will allow the population to visit the medical centers to get their children vaccinated against polio virus.
Tension has been high in the occupied West Bank after a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 40,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 7 last year.
According to Palestinian officials, at least 670 Palestinians have been killed, about 5,400 others wounded and over 10,300 arrested in the West Bank.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a landmark opinion on July 19, declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
