Famous actress and former UNHRC special envoy Angelina Jolie posted to Instagram on Wednesday, attacking Israel and its supporting countries, claiming that Israel is preventing humanitarian aid into the Jabaliya area of the northern Gaza Strip.
"This is a deliberate bombing of a trapped population who have nowhere to flee," she wrote as her caption on Instagram to a new post. "Gaza has been an open-air prison for nearly two decades and is fast becoming a mass grave. 40% of those killed are innocent children. Whose families are being murdered. While the world watches and with the active support of many governments."
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit declared last week that Hamas is continuing to prevent residents of the Gaza Strip from moving to a safe area.
It conveyed that intelligence soldiers had appealed to dozens of Palestinians, calling them to evacuate, but the conversations revealed that the terrorist organization blocked the access routes to the southern Strip.
For example, in a recorded conversation distributed by the IDF spokesperson between an officer and a resident of the coastal enclave, the resident argues that he cannot move due to Hamas's blockades.
"All the roads are blocked, people are walking, and they are just sent back home." he says. "They are shooting at people who want to leave."
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Jolie continued, saying, "Millions of Palestinian civilians - children, women, families - are being collectively punished and dehumanized, all while being deprived food [sic], medicine and humanitarian aid against international law. By refusing to demand a humanitarian ceasefire and blocking the UN Security Council from imposing one on both parties, world leaders are complicit in these crimes."
Earlier this week on Sunday, Jolie posted on her Instagram, calling out both sides.
Calling out both sides
"Like millions around the world, I have spent the last weeks sick and angry at the terrorist attack in Israel, the death of so many innocent civilians, and wondering how best to help," she wrote. "I too am praying for the immediate, safe return of every hostage, and for the families who carry the unimaginable pain of a murder of a loved one. Above all, the children murdered, and the many children now orphaned. What happened in Israel is an act of terror."
She then switches the tone of the post to start attacking Israel's response to Hamas's brutal attack on October 7. "That cannot justify the innocent lives lost in bombing a civilian population in Gaza that has nowhere to go, no access to food or water, no possibility of evacuation, and not even the basic human right to cross a border to seek refuge."
Jolie then goes on to talk about her time working with refugees, trying to defend and help the Gaza residents who are trying to flee.
"Because of my work with refugees for 20 years, my focus is on the people displaced by violence in any context," she wrote. "Gaza has a population of over 2 million people (half of them children), who have lived under a severe blockade for nearly 2 decades, on top of decades of displacement and statelessness.
"The few aid trucks that are entering are a fraction of what is needed (and was delivered daily before the present conflict), and the bombings are causing desperate new humanitarian needs daily."
Bar-Ilan professor's open letter to Jolie
A law professor at Bar-Ilan University had issued an open letter to Jolie on Sunday, calling on her to support Israel's military incursion into Gaza for the sake of Israel, Gazans and the world.
"The only way to get rid of the cancer called Hamas is by a significant military intervention, including by ground forces, just like the allies did to get rid of the Nazis in Germany and the militant rulers of Japan in the 2nd World War," Prof. Arie Reich, law professor and vice rector of the university wrote.
"Unfortunately, there were many civilians killed in the course of the liberation of Europe and Japan, much more than what is anticipated in Gaza. But after those military interventions, we achieved peace in Europe and peace in the world, and the citizens of both Germany and Japan can enjoy a much better life in a free democratic society that they did not enjoy before."
"So if you, Angelina, are truly interested in promoting peace and human rights, you ought to support the military intervention that Israel has now embarked on in order to restore peace and quiet," Dr. Reich wrote.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman and Walla contributed to this article.