NYC 24-hour vigil: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators call for Gaza cease-fire at City Hall
NEW YORK CITY - Dozens of Pro-Palestinian demonstrators amassed at NYC's City Hall on Wednesday for a 24-hour vigil "to tell City Council that NYC demands a ceasefire" in Gaza.
City councilmembers joined activists around 10 a.m. in Lower Manhattan and plan to conclude their demonstration Thursday morning.
"In late January, the city of Chicago passed a resolution calling for a Ceasefire [sic] in Gaza, and it’s past time the largest city in the United States followed suit. Councilmembers and New Yorkers will gather for 24 hours to read the names of Palestinians killed since October 7, urge attendees to contact their Congressmembers, and demand the NYC Council call for a Ceasefire," Mariah McGough, a spokesperson for VOCAL-NY, said in a statement.
The reading of the names will take place at the top of every hour until Thursday at 9 a.m., where closing remarks will also happen.
Councilmembers Shahannah Hanif, Alexa Aviles and Tiffany Cabán were among the attendees.
"We will continue to fight for our neighbors here and abroad until we achieve our goal, until we save lives, until we do what is necessary, until we get a cease-fire," Cabán told the crowd Wednesday morning.
Israel-Hamas war: The latest
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said he hopes a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which would pause any more warfare and allow remaining hostages to be released, could happen as early as next Monday.
"I hope by the beginning of the weekend. The end of the weekend. My national security adviser tells me that they’re close. They’re close. They’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire," Biden said on Monday.
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Israel-Hamas cease-fire, hostage deal could happen by next Monday, Biden says
President Joe Biden said that he hopes a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which would pause any more warfare and allow remaining hostages to be released, could happen as early as next Monday.
Negotiations are underway for a weekslong cease-fire between Israel and Hamas to allow for the release of hostages being held in Gaza by the militant group in return for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The proposed six-week pause in fighting would also include allowing hundreds of trucks to deliver desperately needed aid into Gaza every day.
Negotiators face an unofficial deadline of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan around March 10, a period that often sees heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Israel-Hamas war: Up until now
The war, launched after Hamas-led militants rampaged across southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 people hostage, has caused vast devastation in Gaza.
This picture taken on October 11, 2023 shows an aerial view of buildings destroyed by Israeli air strikes in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City. (Photo by Yahya HASSOUNA / AFP) (Photo by YAHYA HASSOUNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Nearly 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry which does not distinguish in its count between fighters and noncombatants. Israel says it has killed 10,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Fighting has flattened large swaths of Gaza's urban landscape, displacing about 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people, who have crammed into increasingly smaller spaces looking for elusive safety.
The crisis has pushed a quarter of the population toward starvation and raised fears of imminent famine, especially in the northern part of Gaza, the first focus of Israel’s ground invasion. Starving residents have been forced to eat animal fodder and search for food in demolished buildings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.