Fifty-eight A-list Hollywood celebrities including Cate Blanchett, Joaquin Phoenix, Florence Pugh and Ramy Youssef penned a letter to US President Joe Biden on Friday, urging him to call for a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas.
Dozens of top-flight names from the world of entertainment, including Jewish personalities Mandy Patinkin, Ilana Glazer and Andrew Garfield, asked Biden to work to achieve an “immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost.”
“We urge your administration, and all world leaders, to honor all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay — an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages,” said the letter, released by the Organization Artists 4 Ceasefire.
“Saving lives is a moral imperative.”
Included in the letter was a statement from UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who wrote that “children and families in Gaza have practically run out of food, water, electricity, medicine and safe access to hospitals, following days of air strikes and cuts to all supply routes.
“The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion — and international law — must prevail.”
This aerial view shows humanitarian aid trucks arriving at a storage facility in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 21, 2023, after having crossed through the Rafah border from Egypt. (Belal Al Sabbagh/AFP)
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist group launched a shock raid from the Gaza Strip on October 7, in which some 2,500 terrorists burst through the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,400 people and taking over 210 hostages.
The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — men, women, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists, in what Biden has highlighted as “the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
During the first stage of the war, Israeli bombers have leveled entire city blocks in Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion they say is coming soon. Israeli officials have stated that the offensive is aimed at destroying terror infrastructure, and that they are seeking to minimize civilian casualties.
The Hamas-run health ministry said more than 4,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in the onslaught. However, the figures issued by the terror group cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include its own terrorists and gunmen, as well as victims killed by the misfiring of the group’s own rockets directed at Israel.
Friday’s letter, which was also signed by Jon Stewart, singer Dua Lipa, Susan Sarandon and Channing Tatum, came a week after some 700 Hollywood figures signed an open letter condemning the “barbaric acts” committed by Hamas terrorists.