With the US Capitol in the background, demonstrators rally during the March on Washington for Gaza at Freedom Plaza in Washington, Jan 13, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

SACRAMENTO, the United States/GAZA - The US government has been facing increasing protests across the country calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and some groups are even seeking legal challenges to force the White House to withdraw support for Israel.

US President Joe Biden has been criticized for "repeatedly" refusing to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and his administration's Gaza strategy accused of being "illogical".

"That approach is illogical on both the domestic and international fronts, not to mention the security risks that come with it," wrote Wa'el Alzayat, a former Middle East policy expert with the US Department of State, in an article titled Biden's Gaza Strategy Is an Illogical Disaster published by Time magazine on Monday.

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He said those risks were made apparent by Sunday's attack on US troops near the border between Jordan and Syria, which left three US servicemen dead and 34 others injured.

"Now, with Sunday's attack that was claimed by Islamic Resistance, a coalition of Iranian-backed groups that oppose Washington's support for Israel's war on Gaza, the risk of escalation has only grown," Alzayat wrote in the article.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said on Monday that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli offensive has reached 26,637 since it began on Oct 7, 2023.

The latest protest took place on Friday in Oakland, California, where a crowd gathered around the federal courthouse to show support for a lawsuit against the US administration, and urge action to stop the war

The ministry said that Israeli forces killed 215 Palestinians and wounded 300 more in the past 24 hours, adding that the total number of wounded Palestinians since the start of the conflict was at least 65,387.

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli gunfire killed at least five Palestinians on Monday, according to the Health Ministry run by the Palestinian Authority.

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Over the past few weeks, Biden, on a series of presidential election campaign rallies, has been increasingly interrupted by protesters, who said they were upset about the White House's support for Israel in its offensive in Gaza.

A campaign rally focused on abortion rights was interrupted 13 times on Jan 23, with one protester shouting "Genocide Joe" and another calling for a "ceasefire now," NBC News reported.

In November, an NBC News poll found that 34 percent of registered voters approved of Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war, with 56 percent disapproving. The numbers were worse among voters under age 35, with about 70 percent disapproving of Biden's handling of the war.

The latest protest took place on Friday in Oakland, California, where a crowd gathered around the federal courthouse to show support for a lawsuit against the US administration, and urge action to stop the war.

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The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in November 2023 against Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, charging them with complicity and failure to prevent the "unfolding genocide" in the occupied strip.

Pro-Palestine protesters gather at Jamaica train station in New York City on Jan 27, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

Friday's four-hour hearing for the case commenced hours after the International Court of Justice in The Hague found it plausible that Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza, in a case brought by South Africa.

During the testimony, plaintiffs told the stories of their loved ones being killed in Gaza, expressing their grief and outrage to the federal judge.

In another lawsuit, Palestinian Americans have accused the US administration of failing to protect US citizens in Gaza and denying them equal protection, a constitutional right

The judge will determine whether the judicial branch can condemn or block the president from providing aid to Israel. 

A Justice Department attorney argued that the plaintiffs' claims were "political questions" and that a judicial finding against US foreign policy could cause "international embarrassment" and undermine the foreign policy stance.

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Josh Paul, a former senior State Department official who resigned over the Biden administration's support for the war on Gaza, filed a declaration in support of the CCR case on Friday morning.

"Since October 7th, we've seen a sharp increase in the transfer of arms to Israel both through the speeding up of previously authorized transfers and through the ramming through Congress of so-called emergency sales of thousands of rounds of tanks, ammunition, and alternative shells," he wrote.

The lawsuit in California also garnered significant international attention, with 77 legal and civil society groups from around the world backing it in a late December briefing to the court.

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These groups argued that the United States is violating its duties under international law to prevent and not be complicit in genocide, contributing to the erosion of "long and widely-held norms of international law," such as the Genocide Convention and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The case is just one of a number of legal actions ongoing in the United States challenging the White House's support for the Israeli attacks on Gaza. 

In another lawsuit, Palestinian Americans have accused the US administration of failing to protect US citizens in Gaza and denying them equal protection, a constitutional right.