WASHINGTON: A senior official in the US Education Department has resigned citing President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza, Western media reported on Wednesday.
The development is the latest sign of dissent in the US administration as deaths continue to grow in the war in the Palestinian enclave.
The Gaza health ministry reported on Wednesday that more than 22,313 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and over 57,296 injured in the ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since October 7.
Meanwhile, 17 Biden re-election campaign staffers have issued a warning in an anonymous letter that he could lose voters over the matter. They also urged Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Tariq Habash, special assistant in the Education Department’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, said he could not stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the brutalities committed against innocent Palestinian.
Israel carrying out genocidal campaign in Gaza strip
He noted that according to the human rights experts the Israeli government has been carrying out a genocidal campaign in Gaza strip.
The US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has said that the US has not observed acts in Gaza that constitute genocide. His remarks came in response to proceedings initiated by South Africa at the International Court of Justice over Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
It is pertinent to mention that in November, more than 1,000 officials in the US Agency for International Development (USAID), part of the State Department, signed an open letter asking the Biden administration to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Israeli bombardments have destroyed much of the densely populated Palestinian enclave, leaving most Gazans homeless, with food shortages.
