Shafaq News/ Vice President Kamala Harris, the current Democratic presidential nominee, signaled a significant shift in US policy on Gaza on Thursday, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to finalize a peace deal and vowing not to remain silent on the suffering in Gaza.

Departing from outgoing President Joe Biden's strategy of mostly behind-the-scenes pressure on Israel, Harris declared after meeting Netanyahu that it was time to end the "devastating" war.

"What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time," Harris told reporters. "We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent."

Harris, 59, addressed the dire situation in what she described as a "frank" meeting with Netanyahu. "I expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians," she said. "And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there."

Harris also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state and urged both Netanyahu and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and hostage release deal to end the conflict sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

"As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done," she said.

Her outspoken comments contrasted sharply with the amiable greetings between Biden and Netanyahu earlier in the day, despite underlying months of tension and questions over Biden's relevance.

Israel's offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,200 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly children and women, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.