US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday reiterated her position that a ceasefire and hostage release deal are needed.
"We need to get this deal done, and we need to get it done immediately – that is my position," Harris said in an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists. "Ultimately, the thing that is going to unlock everything else in that region is getting this deal done."
"I'm not going to disclose private conversations, but I'll tell you that I've had direct conversations with the prime minister, the president of Israel, Egyptian leaders and with our allies," she added.
"We've made ourselves very clear: This deal needs to get done, and it's in the best interest of everyone in the region, including getting those hostages out – we saw the latest example of what happened with the six [hostages who were murdered in Gaza], one of whom was an American citizen," said Harris.
She also confirmed that the US withheld some shipments of bombs to Israel during the war, saying she is "entirely supportive of the pause we put on the 2000-pound bombs…there is some leverage that we've had and used."
In early May, Axios reported that President Joe Biden decided to put on hold a weapons shipment that was supposed to be sent to Israel.
The White House later confirmed it had paused a shipment of bombs to Israel due to US opposition to a planned Israeli attack on the Gazan city of Rafah.
Israel Hayom reported last month that the US is sending Israel the weapons shipment which it previously delayed.
The United States has been pushing an outline for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that Biden first laid out in May, but Hamas has continuously rejected every proposal that has been presented to it.
Last week, Hamas once again said that its negotiators reiterated the group’s readiness to implement an "immediate" ceasefire with Israel in Gaza based on a previous US proposal without new conditions from any party.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday that the United States continues to collaborate with mediators from Egypt and Qatar to draft a revised ceasefire proposal.
His comments are in line with ones made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who last week downplayed pessimism over the prospects of a hostage release deal, saying that the US will present a new proposal for a deal “very soon”.