Biden says Gaza ceasefire could start by ‘end of weekend’ during ice cream break as protesters invade 30 Rock during NYC visit

President Biden said Monday that a new cease-fire in the Gaza Strip could begin within days — after protesters demanding an end to the Israeli invasion followed him to 30 Rockefeller Plaza for his interview with NBC late-night host Seth Meyers.

“I hope by the end of the weekend,” the 81-year-old president told reporters as he and Meyers visited an ice cream parlor next door to the Peacock Network’s headquarters after taping Meyers’ “Late Night” show.

“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden added.

Biden embraced the term “cease-fire” after repeatedly opposing it earlier in the conflict as Israeli troops fought to crush Hamas terrorists in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terror attack, in which jihadists killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza.

The White House has for months said that it supports “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting while opposing a cease-fire — though the administration lately has endorsed the notion of a “temporary cease-fire.”

When asked about the evolving terminology last week and what it means, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby defined a “temporary cease-fire” as last “more than one week; it could potentially be up to six weeks if we’re successful.”

But Kirby also said: “We still don’t believe that a general cease-fire, meaning a permanent cease-fire, that this is the right time for that — a cease-fire that leaves Hamas in control and alleviates any responsibility for them to release the hostages.”

Biden’s re-election prospects are believed to be imperiled by the war, in part due to the outrage of Arab American and Muslim American voters in swing states such as Michigan, where polling shows a substantial number of the cohort are willing to vote for someone else.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who is Palestinian-American, is urging fellow Michigan Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s Tuesday primary election to send a message to the White House.

Biden has been persistently heckled by pro-cease-fire protesters in public appearances and large protest marches with members chanting “Genocide Joe!” and “F–k Joe Biden!” have descended on the White House and vandalized the front gate.

The president has also shown increasing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since traveling to the Jewish state in a show of support just days after the massacres by Hamas.

In recent public remarks, Biden has appeared to accept death toll data released by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry — which has asserted nearly 30,000 had died from the Israeli incursion — after previously scoffing at the source’s reliability.

In private, meanwhile, Biden has reportedly called Netanyahu an “a–hole.”

Hamas still controls parts of the Gaza Strip, including the city of Rafah along the Egyptian border. The White House has publicly called on Israel to halt its advance until it develops a plan to evacuate civilians from the city, where thousands had fled from other parts of the territory.