Protesters welcome Biden to Los Angeles with chants of 'genocide supporter'

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators welcomed US President Joe Biden to America's second most-populous city Wednesday with chants ridiculing his hitherto unwavering support for Israel's war on Gaza.

"Genocide supporter!" protesters yelled as Biden's motorcade pulled up to the Culver City Julian Dixon Library in Los Angeles, where he delivered remarks touting his efforts to reduce US student debt.

Biden delivered the remarks after being introduced by Mayor Karen Bass, a former Democratic representative who left the federal legislature to take LA's top spot.

Protesters sought to interrupt the president as he was concluding his remarks, but their words were not immediately discernible amid applause from the crowd.

They again shouted at Biden as his motorcade left the Julian Dixon Library.

Biden has so far resisted calls for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, vetoing on Tuesday a UN Security Council resolution calling for one for a third time. 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 at least 29,313 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Nearly 70,000 people have been injured.

Less than 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

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 in Gaza.