Live Blog Update| Israel's genocide in Gaza
This is an entry from: Israel-Palestine live: US vice president calls for ‘immediate’ six-week ceasefire

Late night update

3 March 2024 23:44 GMT

Hello MEE readers, 

US Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the sharpest comments of any senior US leader today when she called for an immediate six-week ceasefire in Gaza, as well as an increase in aid being allowed into the besieged enclave. 

"What we are seeing every day in Gaza is a tragedy," Harris said.

The vice president, who was speaking at an event in Selma, Alabama, urged Hamas to accept a deal to release captives that would kickstart a 6-week ceasefire and allow more aid to flow.

"People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act," Harris said.

Harris's comments come several days after an Israeli attack on an aid convoy killed more than a hundred people in Gaza City.

"We saw hungry desperate people approach aid trucks, simply trying to secure food for their families, after weeks of nearly no aid reaching northern Gaza," Harris said of the incident.

"And they were met with gunfire and chaos," she continued, without naming Israel as the perpetrator.

"The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses."

Harris is set to meet with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz at the White House on Monday, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's disapproval. Gantz arrived in Washington earlier on Sunday. 

Other updates from today include: 

  • The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, called for sanctions against Israel, saying it is the only way to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

  • Amnesty International chief Agnes Callamard, in a post to X social media platform, warned that the deaths of children through dehydration and malnutrition are the "result of acts by Israeli authorities which engineered famine".

  • The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) reiterated its call for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

  • Discussions over a proposed law that would end conscription exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews have caused anger in the community, and members blocked a highway in Jerusalem in protest.

  • Israel's army radio said the country's Division 162 destroyed 35 Hamas "sites" in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood, killing 113 fighters.