“It is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power,” the vice president said after the Israeli military confirmed that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the militant group, had been killed.
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Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, last year in Gaza. The Israeli military confirmed on Thursday that he had been killed in battle.
Declaring that “justice has been served,” Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday that the killing of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader whom she called the “mastermind” of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, created an opportunity to end the war in Gaza.
Ms. Harris spoke shortly after Israeli officials confirmed the death of Mr. Sinwar, who was viewed as the architect of the Hamas-led attack, in which militants killed roughly 1,200 people and took roughly 250 others hostage.
“This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” Ms. Harris said at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee during a campaign visit. “It is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power.”
Ms. Harris, who spoke for three minutes, did not answer questions from reporters asking if she would directly call on Israel to end its campaign in Gaza. She gave her remarks just minutes after President Biden, aboard Air Force One en route to a diplomatic visit in Berlin, issued a public statement on the killing.
The timing of Ms. Harris’s comments underscored just how much scrutiny has been directed at her support of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The war has sharply divided Americans, especially younger ones, and has threatened her standing with key voters in battleground states.
As a candidate, Ms. Harris has so far defied political pressure to break from her administration’s support of Israel and Mr. Biden’s increasingly strained embrace of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Her remarks on Thursday largely still followed Mr. Biden’s lead.
In his statement, Mr. Biden said that Mr. Sinwar’s killing had rendered Hamas “no longer capable of carrying out another Oct. 7.” Mr. Biden said that he would be speaking soon with Mr. Netanyahu to discuss the return of hostages and “ending this war once and for all” — a more direct tack than Ms. Harris took in her remarks.
Before she spoke in Milwaukee, Ms. Harris’s motorcade was greeted by protesters, who yelled “Free Palestine” and “We charge you with genocide” as her S.U.V. drove past.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington.
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent. For much of the past decade, she has focused on features about the presidency, the first family, and life in Washington, in addition to covering a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. She is the author of a book on first ladies. More about Katie Rogers
Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. More about Reid J. Epstein
See more on: Israel-Hamas War News, 2024 Elections: News, Polls and Analysis, Kamala Harris, Yehya Sinwar, Benjamin Netanyahu
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Source: nytimes.com
