CHARLESTON: US President Joe Biden said on Monday he was working to get Israel to cut its military presence in Gaza, after protesters calling for a ceasefire disrupted him during a campaign speech.

`I`ve been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza,` Biden said at a church in Charleston, South Carolina where a white supremacist shot dead nine Black parishioners in 2015.

As the protesters chanted `ceasefire now, Biden said: `I understand their passion.` The congregation at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Church then drowned out the noise of the demonstration by chanting `four more years` to back Biden`s campaign for a second term in office.-AFP