Vice President Kamala Harris made some of her most direct remarks yet on the war in the Gaza Strip as she accepted her party’s presidential nomination Thursday night, addressing an issue that has divided Democrats and drawn thousands of protesters to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.Offering a forceful defense of Israel and its right to protect itself, she said she was working round-the-clock with President Joe Biden to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza that would involve the release of American and Israeli hostages still being held by the militant group Hamas.

“Because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done,” she told a packed Chicago United Center.

As Harris described a postwar future in which Palestinians can “realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” the crowd erupted with one of the loudest cheers of the night.Harris has expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself before, but she has generally spoken more forcefully than Biden about the plight of Palestinians, tens of thousands of whom have been killed in a months-long Israeli military operation that has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis. She has also held Israel more directly responsible for the high civilian death toll in Gaza and slow pace of humanitarian aid.The careful comments in her acceptance speech Thursday — emphasizing Israel’s right to defend itself but also directly addressing the suffering in Gaza, including starvation — highlight the delicate balance she must navigate in the final two months before Election Day.

She must maintain support among pro-Israel Democrats, but also try to win back significant numbers of Arab Americans, Muslims and other pro-Palestinian activists who have said they are open to her but waiting to see whether she is willing to diverge from Biden’s stance on the war.