Hamas terrorists kidnapping Israeli women at the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Screenshot
Celebrities who have regularly expressed anti-Israel sentiments since the start of the Israel-Hamas war stayed quiet on Wednesday in response to a heart-wrenching new video that shows the moments when five female Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.
Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, John Cusack, and Bella Hadid were among the celebrities who stayed tight-lipped as the world saw the newly released, firsthand footage in which Hamas terrorists force the female Israeli soldiers, who are covered in blood, against a wall and threaten to kill them. The women, some of whom are teenagers, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists at the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip. The video was taken by body cameras on the Hamas terrorists and the hostages were identified as Naama Levy, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa, Liri Albag, and Karina Ariev. They have been held hostage by Hamas terrorists for more than seven months.
In the clip, Hamas terrorists are heard telling the hostages in Arabic, “you dogs, we will step on you,” and “our brothers died because of you. We will shoot you all.” They also call the women “so beautiful,” and one terrorist points to the hostages while saying in Arabic, “here are the girls” who can get pregnant and “these are the Zionists.”
Instead of addressing the new Hamas video, Ruffalo — who supports a Israel-Hamas ceasefire and has condemned Israel’s war against terrorists responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks — instead expressed support on Wednesday for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and his demand for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s defense minister, and three Hamas leaders.
Meanwhile, Cusack called Israel “war criminals” and shared a tweet that described the Jewish state as “genocidal,” but made no mention of the Hamas video.
Among the pro-Israel supporters who have used their social media platforms to draw attention to the video, actresses Amy Schumer and Emmanuelle Chriqui shared on their Instagram stories a post that lists the names of the five female hostages in the clip and the message “bring them home now.”
An Instagram story uploaded by Emmanuelle Chriqui. Photo: Screenshot
Fellow actress Debra Messing said in an Instagram video that after watching the Hamas body camera footage, she could not stop thinking of the mothers of those five hostages “who have been brave enough and generous enough” to share the video with the world.
“To see their girls bloodied, surrounded by terrorists with machine guns, being told that they will be able to get pregnant, ‘these Zionists’ … God bless these five girls,” added the former “Will & Grace” star while holding back tears. “I pray for their safety. I pray for their strength, their family, and their friends. I pray for their release, and I pray that we can put to bed any question that these monsters intended to violently sexually assault as many women and girls as possible on Oct. 7. And it’s happening right now because they are still hostages.”
“Please find your humanity and just see five girls,” she concluded. “It doesn’t matter where they’re from, what they believe, what their government does. Please.”
Actor Michael Rapaport and Oscar-nominated screenwriter and comedian Lee Kern also took to social media to comment on the new video of the Hamas hostages. Kern, who co-wrote Sacha Baron Cohen’s film “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” described the hostages as “the bravest people I’ve ever seen.”
“You tried to manage that situation with the tiny amounts of ‘power’ you had,” he added. “With your hands bound and men with machine guns barking in your faces, with physical injuries from assault, you used your words with calmness and exercised bravery and emotional control to somehow work the situation to your favor. I hope that some kind of grace has kept you safe since.”
Music mogul Scooter Braun, who helped bring an exhibition to New York City about the Oct. 7 massacre at the Supernova music festival, shared the full Hamas video on his Instagram story. In the caption, he urged his followers to watch the video and called on more people to be outraged by the clip.
“Do not turn away,” he wrote. “Where is your outrage? Your empathy should not stop at your popularity. Call out for them over 200 days later. Bring them home.”