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Dozens of White House interns have signed a letter to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris demanding a "permanent cease-fire" in the Gaza Strip and accusing the pair of ignoring the "pleas of the American people."
The letter, first reported on by NBC News, comes after 400 government officials from 40 departments and agencies within President Biden's administration threw their support behind a similar message in mid-November calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
"We, the undersigned Fall 2023 White House and Executive Office of the President interns, will no longer remain silent on the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people," the interns’ letter begins. "We are Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Black, Asian, Latine, White, and Queer.
"We heed the voices of the American people and call on the Administration to demand a permanent cease-fire," the letter continues. "We are not the decision makers of today, but we aspire to be the leaders of tomorrow, and we will never forget how the pleas of the American people have been heard and thus far, ignored."
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President Biden speaks at The Kennedy Center Honorees reception at The White House on Dec. 3 in Washington, D.C. White House interns have written him a letter criticizing his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
The letter adds that while the interns were "horrified" by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that launched the war, they oppose the "brutal and genocidal response by the Israeli government, funded by our American tax dollars, which has killed over 14,000 innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, a large percentage of whom are children" -- echoing a death statistic from the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Dec. 6. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
"While the Administration expressed support for the humanitarian pause, we maintain that anything other than a complete halt of Israel’s mass slaughter of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip will simply not suffice," it concludes. "We urge the Biden-Harris Administration to call for a permanent cease-fire now, a release of all hostages including Palestinian political prisoners, and to support a diplomatic solution that will put an end to the illegal occupation and the Israeli apartheid, in according with international law and for a free Palestine."
A temporary cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect in late November but lasted for only a week before fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip.
In this image taken from a video released by the Israeli Defense Forces on Tuesday, Nov. 14, an Israeli tank drives through Gaza City. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)
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On Tuesday, Biden blamed Hamas for breaking the agreement with Israel, telling donors the terrorist group's "refusal to release the remaining young women is what broke this deal."
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
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