As protests seeking a ceasefire lit up across Israel this weekend, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gal Gadot and Debra Messing joined other Hollywood stars in expressing sorrow and sympathy for the families of six Israeli hostages whose bodies were discovered in a tunnel below Gaza after 11 months in captivity.
Nearly a year after their abduction by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the bodies of the hostages — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov and Ori Danino — were recovered from a tunnel under the city of Rafah. The Israeli Defense Force announced on Sunday morning that the six victims, who “were taken alive, endured the horrors of captivity and were then coldly murdered,” were killed shortly before Israeli forces were to rescue them.
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Social media erupted in calls for protests of the lack of ceasefire-for-hostages negotiations coming from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Taking to Instagram after the news broke on Sunday, Paltrow wrote with sympathy to the victims’ parents and drew attention to the number of women being held captive by calling out “feminists” for a lack of attention given the crisis.
“To the families of each hostage whose life was stolen, I have thought of you every day for 11 months, but today I send you my heart,” wrote Paltrow, who has spoken out to raise awareness about the hostages’ plight over the past year. In a separate Instagram Stories post, the actor asked, “There are still 17 women being held by Hamas. Where are the feminists?” with the hashtag “#rapeisnotresistance.”
Among the bodies recovered over the weekend was that of Israeli-American Goldberg-Polin, whose parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) of their son’s bravery as he was taken with other Israelis at the Nova Music Festival last year. Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg relentlessly fought for their son’s release and made their harrowing plea for their son’s life before millions of DNC viewers after a sustained standing ovation when they walked to the podium.
After the news of Goldberg-Polin’s death broke, Messing posted a tearful response conveying the deep pain she felt over the killings, and placed the blame on those who opposed the IDF’s offensive in Rafah in May — a stance for which she saw major backlash in her post’s comments.
“The collective grief, the agony that comes with the news that Hersh and those five beautiful souls were executed ISIS style in the last two days is unbearable,” Messing wrote.
“After Rachel and John spoke to the world at the DNC, begging for their rescue, for their release, and two days ago, standing on the border of Gaza with a bullhorn screaming, ‘Hersh! Fight. Survive. We won’t give up.’ And in the middle of negotiations. There is no moral equivalency. These are monsters, and every American should be grieving today, because Hirsch did not have to die, the six of them did not have to die.
“And to all of you people who posted, ‘All Eyes on Rafah,’ pressuring not to go into Rafah, which is where they were, is so painful. So, to all of you, ‘All Eyes on Rafah,’ you did this.”
On Aug. 30, the death toll in the Israel-Gaza war topped 42,000 people, with 40,602 Palestinians and 1,478 Israelis reported as killed in the conflict, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israeli actress Gadot also posted a montage of images of the six victims, telling her fans that her heart was broken after learning the news.
“They survived almost 11 months in captivity and then were murdered by Hamas,” she wrote. “People who became an inseparable part of our hearts, families who waited so long for a different end, the heart is broken into pieces today. 101 more hostages still there.”
On Monday, Ben Stiller included three blue hearts when he wrote a reaction on X (formerly Twitter): “Sending love and support to the families of the hostages [whose] lives were taken so brutally. So many people are sharing this pain. My family’s heart goes out to you.”
And music producer Scooter Braun posted a note in Instagram Stories indicating that he would wear the number 331 on his clothing, writing that it would be in honor of the “strength of the family members for the last 330 days.”
“All 6 of these souls were an entire world,” Braun wrote.
Meanwhile, WME agent Brandt Joel has become embroiled in a bigotry storm controversy after sending and then deleting an incendiary text to a WhatsApp group. Joel wrote, “Screw the left kill all,” in the chat.
Following the discovery of the bodies of the hostages, Hamas spokesperson Izzat al-Rishq claimed their deaths were the result of airstrikes on Gaza. “If President [Joe] Biden truly cares about the lives of Israeli hostages, he should cease his support for this enemy with money and weapons and pressure Israel to end its aggression immediately,” Rishq said in a statement, in part.
Across Israel, protests erupted calling for a ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages held captive. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Caesarea and more locations in the country, including at the homes of Netanyahu.
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