Kamala Harris urges Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and presses Israel for aid to Gaza.

Reuters - US Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday (3) demanded that the Palestinian militant group Hamas agree to an immediate six-week ceasefire, while strongly urging Israel to do more to increase aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, where she said innocent people were suffering a "humanitarian catastrophe".

In some of the strongest comments made by a senior U.S. government leader to date on the subject, Harris pressed the Israeli government and outlined specific ways in which more aid could flow to the densely populated enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people are facing famine five months into Israel's military campaign.

"Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire," Harris said at an event in Selma, Alabama. "There is an agreement on the table, and as we have said, Hamas needs to agree to that agreement. We will get a ceasefire." >>> READ ALSO: Israel boycotts ceasefire negotiations in Cairo and is set to continue its genocide in Gaza.

"People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane, and our shared humanity compels us to act... The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses," she said.

On Sunday, a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for the latest round of ceasefire talks, heralded by many as the last possible obstacle to a ceasefire, but it was unclear if any progress had been made. The online version of the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel boycotted the talks after Hamas rejected its demand for a complete list naming hostages who are still alive.

Washington has insisted that a ceasefire agreement is close and has been pushing to put a ceasefire into effect at the start of Ramadan, a week away. A US official said on Saturday that Israel had agreed to a framework agreement.

An agreement would bring the first prolonged ceasefire of the war, which has already lasted five months with only a one-week pause in November. Dozens of hostages held by Hamas militants would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.

A source familiar with the negotiations had said on Saturday that Israel might stay away from Cairo unless Hamas first presented its full list of hostages who are still alive. A Palestinian source told Reuters that Hamas has so far rejected this demand.

After the Hamas delegation arrived, a Palestinian official told Reuters that the agreement was not yet "there." There was no official comment from Israel.

In previous negotiations, Hamas sought to avoid discussing the well-being of individual hostages until terms for their release were defined.

In other diplomatic moves, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz will meet with Harris at the White House on Monday, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet in Washington on Tuesday. U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein will visit Beirut on Monday to try to de-escalate the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border.

"SHOTS AND CHAOS" - The deaths last week of more than 100 Palestinians approaching an aid truck in Gaza captured the dire humanitarian crisis in the densely populated enclave, an incident Harris recalled during her speech.

"We saw hungry and desperate people approach aid trucks simply trying to secure food for their families after weeks of almost no aid reaching northern Gaza, and they were met with gunfire and chaos," Harris said.

Israel said on Sunday that its initial review of the incident found that most of those killed or wounded died in a stampede. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Israeli troops at the scene initially fired only warning shots, although they later shot at some "looters" who "approached our forces and posed an immediate threat."

Muatasem Salah, a member of the Emergency Committee of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters that the Israeli version was contradicted by machine gun wounds.

In his remarks, Harris detailed specific ways in which the Israeli government could allow more aid into Gaza. "They should open new border crossings. They should not impose any unnecessary restrictions on aid delivery. They should ensure that humanitarian personnel, locations, and convoys are not targeted, and they should work to restore basic services and promote order in Gaza so that more food, water, and fuel can reach those in need."

Under pressure at home and abroad, the Biden administration on Saturday carried out its first aid drop to the coastal enclave, with a U.S. military transport plane airdropping 38.000 meals along Gaza's Mediterranean coast.

Critics of airdrops say they have only a limited impact on alleviating suffering and that it is nearly impossible to guarantee that the supplies will not end up in the hands of militants.

The United States will continue these launches, Harris said, adding that Washington is working on a new sea route to also send aid.

The war was triggered in October after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns, killing 1.200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli counts. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 30.000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

Large areas of the Gaza Strip have been devastated, almost the entire population has been left homeless, and the United Nations estimates that a quarter of Gazans are on the brink of famine.

In a morgue outside a hospital in Rafah on Sunday morning, women wept and mourned beside rows of bodies from the Abu Anza family, 14 of whom Gaza health officials say were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah overnight.

The youngest members of the family who were killed were newborn twins Wesam and Naaem, their mother's first children after 11 years of marriage. They were born a few weeks after the start of the war in Gaza.

"My heart is gone," lamented Rania Abu Anza, who also lost her husband in the attack. "I didn't have enough time with them."