Washington: In a rarest of rare case, the administrative staff of US President Joe Biden Wednesday December 13, 2023 gathered outside his official residence White House to demand ceasefire in Gaza Strip which is under relentless bombing by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).
Those who held the vigil in solidarity with the Palestinians consisted of political appointees, administration staffers and civil service career staff, held a banner that said:
"President Biden, your staff demands a cease-fire."
The staffers also arranged candles in front of them which spells out "CEASEFIRE".
The vigil comes a day after Joe Biden said the Israeli forces are indiscriminately bombing civilian areas in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Josh Paul, the State Department official who resigned from the office in October this year over disagreement with the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza in his remarks on behalf of the group said the temporary truce that ended on Nov 30 was not enough.
"We must move with urgency to save as many lives as possible and achieve an immediate, permanent cease-fire agreement and the return of all hostages," he said.
In a touching gesture to show solidarity with the Palestinians, the Biden staffers also read aloud the names of those killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since Dec. 1 and laid roses on the ground in their memory.
A former administration staffer also read a statement given to him by a group of Palestinian administration officials who did not want to be identified, CNN reported.
“The US government’s decision to double down on fueling the violence has put our objectives around the globe in jeopardy for us to achieve any movement on some of the most intractable issues we face today,” read the former administration official.
In a related development over a dozen Israeli human rights and civil society organizations in a letter addressed to Joe Biden asked him to use his influence to press the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza which they said is “reaching a point of catastrophe".
Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza since Oct 7 crossed 18,600 mark Wednesday. More than 70 per cent among those killed in the Israeli shelling in Gaza are women and children, according to the Palestine Health Ministry.
Also on Wednesday, the Israeli Occupation Forces shot and killed more than a dozen Palestinians who were sheltering at a school near the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.
Rescuers later found at least 15 bullet-riddled and decomposed bodies piled up at the Shadia Abu Ghazala School west of the Jabalia refugee camp, in an area called Al-Faluja. Eyewitnesses and relatives of the victims said they were shot at point-blank by Israel’s troops.
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