Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in front of the White House on Saturday, calling for a cease-fire. The Biden administration is pushing Israel to consider humanitarian pauses instead.
Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
As the conflict between Israel and Hamas enters its second month and the death toll in Gaza climbs, humanitarian groups’ calls for a cease-fire are growing — though they don’t appear to be moving the leaders of Israel or its key ally, the U.S.
Israel continues to strike Gaza from the air and on the ground, seeking to remove Hamas from power in response to its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,400 people and took another roughly 240 as hostages.
More than 10,000 people — mostly women and children — have died in Gaza in the four weeks since, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported on Monday.
That same day, the heads of 18 United Nations agencies issued a rare joint statement reiterating their calls for an immediate cease-fire, as well as the immediate and unconditional release of all civilian hostages.
“Enough is enough. This must stop now,” wrote the signatories, which include the heads of the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the High Commissioner for Refugees.
Other activists and world leaders have made similar — and increasingly forceful — pleas in recent days.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., this weekend to demand a cease-fire in one of the nation’s largest pro-Palestinian protests since the conflict began. Others have taken place in New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco — as well as cities throughout the United Kingdom,…
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