Kamala Harris supports Israel ceasefire deal, terms Gaza suffering "heartbreaking"

By Reena Bhardwaj
Chicago [US], August 23 : United States Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday speaking at the Democratic Party National Convention addressed the Israel-Hamas war and that she along with President Joe Biden was working to end the crisis in Gaza.
Stating that she will always ensure Israel has ability to defend itself, Harris said that now is the time to get a ceasefire deal done and added that the "devastating" bloodshed in Gaza is "heartbreaking."
"What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking," Harris said.
"President Biden and I are working around the clock, because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done," she said in her nomination acceptance speech on August 22 night on the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
"And let me be clear: I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on October 7, including unspeakable sexual violence, and the massacre of young people at a music festival," Harris said.
In July this year Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had met US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris during a visit to Washington.
On August 21, President Joe Biden in a call spoke with Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and the two leaders discussed active and ongoing US efforts to support Israel's defence against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, to include ongoing defensive US military deployments, the White House said.
Biden stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacles.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on August 19 after a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem said that Israel had accepted a Biden administration proposal to bridge differences in ceasefire negotiations and urged Hamas to accept it ahead of further negotiations.
The "bridging proposal" was the result of talks held with Israeli negotiators with mediator officials of US, Qatar and Egypt on a potential hostages-for-ceasefire agreement. Following this Blinken and Netanyahu's office announced that Israel had agreed to the US "bridging" proposal.
Meanwhile, in her ceremonial acceptance speech in Chicago on August 22, Kamala Harris vowed to be president for "all Americans," while describing the upcoming election as the "most important in the life of our nation."
She also promised to bring back the bipartisan border security bill and sign it into law.
Harris also criticised Donald Trump on the issue of reproductive rights and said she will sign into law the bill if elected to president.
"We trust women, and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom. As president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law," she said.
As the 2024 Democratic National Convention convened its fourth and final session, the 59-year-old Vice President focused on her personal story and vowed a "new way forward" as she reached out to voters after one of the most extraordinary turnarounds in US political history.
Harris began her speech to share her life story about being raised by a single mother in California, Shyamala Gopalan who immigrated to the US at the age of 19 from India.
"The path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected," she said. "But I'm no stranger to unlikely journeys," she added.
She recalled moving often as a child, and eventually settling around San Francisco, where she was raised by a community of caretakers. Harris shared with the audience the lessons learned from her mother.
Harris attacked former US President, Donald Trump, calling him "an unserious man" and urged Americans to consider the "extremely serious" consequences of putting him back in the White House.
"Consider the power he will have, especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution," she said. "Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States, not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had -- himself," Harris said.
"On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be the President of the United States of America, " Harris said at the DNC convention.