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Anti-Israel Celebrities Remain Silent After New Hamas Video Shows Kidnapping of Female Israeli Hostages
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.”
The post Anti-Israel Celebrities Remain Silent After New Hamas Video Shows Kidnapping of Female Israeli Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.