At debate, Harris backs Israel’s right to self defense; Trump says she ‘hates Israel’

US Vice President Kamala Harris asserted that Israel has the right to defend itself after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, as Republican candidate Donald Trump accused her of “hating” the Jewish state, during a bitter televised debate Tuesday that poured fuel on an already explosive US presidential election.

When asked by the moderators how she would secure a hostage-ceasefire deal and about her remarks from months ago that “Israel has a right to defend itself, but it matters how,” Harris started by explaining how the almost year-long war in Gaza was triggered.