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Pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday interrupted President Biden’s speech at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, urging him to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“If you really care about the lives lost here, you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Gaza,” shouted one person in the audience at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where a white supremacist killed nine people in 2015. .
Then a group of protesters began chanting, “Cease fire now.”
As Biden supporters responded with chants of “Four more years,” Biden said, “Okay, okay.” He then paused as the chanting continued and protesters were chased away, before saying that he understood his “passion” and was working to reduce suffering in Gaza.
The Biden administration has broadly supported Israel, both in words and in providing weapons, in its invasion and bombing of Gaza after Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on October 7. Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 22,000 people in Gaza in the three months since, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
As the civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza rises, Biden has urged Israel to scale back its campaign and take greater precautions to avoid civilian casualties. But he has continued to support military aid and has not called for a ceasefire, and the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for one.
Voters generally disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war, and it has become a major political vulnerability for him.