Protesters march inside Biden's California hotel, accuse him of genocide

WASHINGTON

A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched inside US President Joe Biden's California hotel Thursday, demanding an immediate cease-fire in the besieged Gaza Strip.

"Biden, Biden you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide," the group, estimated by the White House pool to include up to 30 people, chanted.

They also chanted “cease-fire now” as they marched through the upscale Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

“How many kids did you kill today?” they asked.

A banner held by some of the protesters as they walked through the Fairmont's lobby and past its rooms said: "Stop funding genocide: End all U.S. aid to Israel.”

Biden has been seeking to build momentum heading into November's presidential election but has repeatedly been dogged by pro-Palestine demonstrations that have disrupted his campaign events in an effort to pressure him to support an immediate cease-fire.

The president has so far resisted those calls and on Tuesday vetoed for a third time a UN Security Council resolution calling for one. His officials have been seeking to broker a mediated extended truce, but those efforts have so far failed to bear fruit.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed nearly 30,000 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Nearly 70,000 people have been injured.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack while over 200 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

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 is 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.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.