By Stephanie Kelly and Kanishka Singh
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said on Thursday that de-escalation was needed in the Middle East, a region on edge for months amid Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
A ceasefire remains elusive in Gaza and Lebanon and the region is bracing for an Israeli response to an Iranian missile attack last week carried out in retaliation for Israel's military action in Lebanon. No one in Israel was killed in Iran's attack, and Washington called it ineffective.
For Gaza, President Joe Biden put forward a three-phase ceasefire plan on May 31, which has run into obstacles for months over Israeli demands of keeping presence in a corridor on Gaza's border with Egypt and over differences in exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
In Lebanon, Washington and Paris put forward a 21-day ceasefire proposal in late September that Israel rejected.
KEY QUOTES
"We have got to reach a ceasefire," Harris told reporters as she departed Las Vegas, while commenting on the situations in Gaza and Lebanon. "We've got to de-escalate."
Washington's occasional condemnation of Israel over the war's civilian death toll has mostly been verbal with no substantive change in policy.
CONTEXT
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed almost 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced nearly the entire population, while causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
Israel's recent operations in Lebanon have killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million. Israel says it is targeting Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.