(RNS) — Hundreds of thousands are expected to march in Washington this Saturday (Jan. 13), urging President Biden to advocate for a cease-fire in the ongoing war being waged by Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The March for Gaza, organized by the American Muslim Taskforce for Palestine and the Act Now to Stop War and Racism Coalition, is the second pro-Palestinian event of this scale organized in Washington since fighting began in October.

“President Biden has to stop. If he’s not going to listen to the voices of mothers and children crying in Gaza, he, at least, has to listen to the American people chanting outside the White House,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell from the American Muslim Taskforce for Palestine.

The event is endorsed by large Muslim organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslims for Palestine, the Muslim American Society and the Muslim Legal Fund of America.

In a press statement, organizers demanded that, besides actively campaigning for a ceasefire, President Biden “hold Israel accountable for war crimes committed against the Palestinian people and their continuous violations of international law.” 

To this effect, they are urging Biden not to interfere in the International Court of Justice case against Israel that began Thursday. South Africa introduced the case, saying claims made by Israeli officials constituted “intent of genocide” in a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 23,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and displaced millions more.

Israel, which initiated its incursion following a Hamas attack that claimed the lives of as many as 1,200 in southern Israel, vehemently denies the accusations of genocide and made its defense at the Hague on Friday.

The Muslim groups in their statement also condemned Biden’s decision to bypass Congress twice in December to make emergency weapons sales to Israel, and they demanded an immediate and permanent halt to the funding of Israel’s military efforts.

“As long as Israel believes it will face no financial or diplomatic consequences for slaughtering Palestinians and scuttling the remaining hopes of a Palestinian state, it will not change course,” read the document. 

It also specified that a ceasefire agreement should include the release of all hostages taken by Hamas and of political prisoners in Israeli jails, and it set conditions for “broader negotiations to pursue a just and lasting peace by ending the occupation.”

Al-Sharif Nassef, the co-founder of the 99 coalition, which endorses the march, said the U.S. support for Israel in Gaza undermines American values. He noted that if the ICJ recognized Israel as guilty of genocide, the U.S.’s financial support to Israel would constitute a violation of international law. 

“We, as Americans, have a moral and ethical duty to end our involvement in that war,” he said. 

The involvement of the U.S. in the Israel-Hamas war, Nassef said, follows the patterns of the military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he regards as failures.

He is also concerned by the cost of the war for American taxpayers. The 99 coalition defends policies benefiting the majority of Americans, “the 99%,” he explained. Funds used to support Israel in Gaza could be invested in public housing to end the homelessness crisis, health care or canceling the student loan debt, he argued. 

Reverend Susan Wilder, a co-moderator for the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church, will attend the march with a network delegation. She just returned from Palestine where she represented the network at the Christmas celebrations organized by the Lutheran Church of Bethlehem. 

“We’re motivated by concern for the ongoing violence, the devastation in Gaza, and our primary top line ask is an immediate ceasefire to stop the carnage,” she said.

Wilder hopes to see changes in U.S. foreign policy. “We’re glad that the United States is a friend to Israel and supports the Israeli people, but we would also like to see the U.S. be a friend to Palestine and support the right to dignity and just basically existence for Palestinians,” she said.

The network, which endorses the march, organizes events to raise awareness about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as trips to the region. 

Another endorsing organization, Christians United for Palestine, said it was their religious obligation to attend the march as the Bible teaches to “correct oppression.” In an email to Religion News Service, the organization denounced a “genocide against the civilian population of Palestine” and called Israel an apartheid state “supported by a compromised Washington administration.”

The march will begin at the Freedom Plaza, after remarks from those who have lost family members in Gaza since Oct. 7, and will end at the White House in the afternoon.