Around 50 protestors were arrested in New York City on Monday while calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to stop supporting the Israeli government and its military operations in Gaza.
Gathering inside 30 Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan in a bid to disrupt the taping of Biden's interview on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers, they chanted "Biden, Biden, you can't hide, you are funding genocide," and "End the siege on Gaza now."
They also unfurled banners saying "Free Palestine," "Jews to Biden: Stop Arming Genocide" and "The Whole World Is Watching."
Biden made an unannounced visit to an ice cream parlor next door, where he told reporters that he hopes a cease-fire will be reached in the Gaza Strip by March 4.
"I hope by the end of the weekend…My national security advisor tells me that we're close. We're close. We're not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we'll have a cease-fire," he said.
Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas, killing at least 29,782 people and causing mass destruction and shortages of necessities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
