This marked a significant departure from the general trend of Hollywood stars shying away from drawing attention to the ongoing conflict during this awards season.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu staunchly defended his decision to press ahead with an invasion of Rafah, a city on the southern border of the Gaza Strip, despite US President Joe Biden's warning that such an offensive would be a "red line," POLITICO reported.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strong condemnation of the comments made Saturday by the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring his nation's support of Hamas and calling Netanyahu a Nazi.
Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling the move, "a serious mistake that constitutes tacit agreement and encouragement on the part of the governments of Canada and Sweden to continue to ignore the involvement of UNRWA employees in terrorist activity."
"We'll go there. We're not going to leave. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn't happen again. Never happens again. And to do that, we have to complete the destruction of the Hamas terrorist army," Israeli PM Netanyahu said.
"There are 'no dates yet' for Hamas negotiators to return to Cairo to resume talks over reaching a ceasefire in exchange for hostage releases," Hossam Badran, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said.
During an interview with MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart on Saturday, US President Biden said, "What's happening is he has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas. But he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the act
The Israel Defense Force's Arabic spokesperson called on Lebanese individuals who want to help Israel to contact the Mossad intelligence service on Sunday.
In a statement on Friday, Canadian Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen said the government is "resuming its funding to UNRWA so more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians."
Israeli Consul General to South India, Tammy Ben-Haim mourned the loss of Pat Nibin Maxwell, who was killed while working in Israel, and said that she will work to provide Israeli support for his family.