I hope Biden steps down quickly and the Democrats go full in behind Harris. She's not perfect, but better than Biden in every way. And the first elected female president in the US should mean something.
Kamala Harris says she has questions about Gaza food, water shortages
US Vice President Kamala Harris has said she has raised questions about food and water shortages in Gaza, in an interview where she appeared to distance herself from President Joe Biden, though said her comments were “not speaking of myself versus the president”.
“From the beginning, I asked questions. OK, the trucks are taking flour into Gaza. But here’s the thing… I like to cook. So I said to my team: You can’t make s*** with flour if you don’t have clean water. So what’s going on with that?,” Harris said in an interview with US publication The Nation, published on Monday.
“I ask questions like, What are people actually eating right now? I’m hearing stories about they’re eating animal feed, grass,” Harris added.
Harris has largely represented the official White House position of unflinching support for Israel, although she was one of the first senior US officials to use the word “ceasefire” while calling for a truce in Gaza.
Her latest comments come as Biden has been facing pressure to bow out of the 2024 election race, with Harris considered a frontrunner to replace him.
Israeli forces blocking aid for 64 days: Government Media Office
“The [Israeli] occupation’s prevention of the entry of aid threatens to increase the number of deaths from hunger, especially among children,” the office has said in a statement.
Aid trucks have been piling up at the Rafah crossing, at the southern border of Gaza, and the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, the two main entry points for aid in to the Strip.
A very limited amount of aid has entered Gaza since Israel began its ground offensive on Rafah, the territory’s southernmost city, two months ago.
UN experts say Gaza children dying in Israel’s ‘starvation campaign’
United Nations rights experts have accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” that has resulted in the deaths of children in Gaza.
“We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” 10 independent United Nations experts said in a statement.
The UN has not officially declared a famine in the Gaza Strip. But the experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri, insisted there is no denying famine is under way.
“Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since October 7, the majority being children,” said the experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
The experts decried that the world had not done more to avert this disaster. “When a two-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan al-Kafarneh died of hunger on February 24 and March 4 respectively, this confirmed that famine had struck northern Gaza,” they said.
“The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel’s genocidal starvation campaign and prevented these deaths.” “Inaction is complicity.”
Biden pledges to free remaining Israeli captives in meeting with freed captive
The US president met Liat Beinin Atzili, an Israeli American who was released by Hamas as part of a captive-Palestinian prisoner exchange deal in November, at the White House on Monday.
Biden said he promised Atzili he would continue to work to “secure the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas” as top US and Israeli officials were reportedly due in Doha to continue mediated truce talks on Tuesday.
Liat Beinin Atzili is a survivor.
It was my honor to welcome her to the White House this evening, hear firsthand about her resilience despite enduring the unthinkable, and promise her that my work isn't done until we secure the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/4fMneEkHzv
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 9, 2024
How about securing their survival first by stopping the bombing campaigns and getting food and water into Gaza.
