WASHINGTON, 30 August 2024 (TDI): Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has called for a ceasefire and a deal for the release of hostages in Gaza.
In an interview with CNN, she emphasized her continued support for Israel while expressing concern over the high number of innocent Palestinian casualties.
“Far too many innocent Palestinian people have been killed, and we have got to get an agreement done,” she stated, without indicating any shift in the current policy.
Gaza Conflict Harris’s comments come amid an agreement between the Israeli military and Hamas to implement three separate, zoned, three-day pauses in fighting across the Gaza Strip to facilitate vaccination of approximately 640,000 children against polio, according to a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official.
The vaccination campaign is expected to begin on Sunday, starting in central Gaza, followed by southern and northern Gaza.
The WHO indicated that these humanitarian pauses could be extended to a fourth day in each zone if necessary.
The WHO confirmed on August 23 that at least one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 poliovirus, marking the first such case in the Palestinian territory in 25 years.
The pauses in fighting are intended to allow families to access medical centers for their children’s vaccinations.
Tensions have remained high in the occupied West Bank following a devastating Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip in October last year. Since then, over 40,600 Palestinians, primarily women and children, have been killed in the Israeli war on Gaza.
Palestinian officials report that at least 670 Palestinians have been killed, approximately 5,400 wounded, and over 10,300 arrested in the West Bank.
In a landmark opinion issued on July 19, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
