Palestinian-American model Gigi Hadid is breaking her silence days after Hamas militants attacked Israel, sparking war in the Middle East.
Hadid, the daughter of Palestinian-American real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, described the ongoing conflict as an "unjustifiable tragedy" in a statement posted to Instagram on Tuesday, while revealing that she believes the "terrorizing of innocent people" by Hamas is setting back the "Free Palestine" movement.
"My thoughts are with all those affected by the unjustifiable tragedy, and every day that innocent lives are taken by this conflict—too many of which are children," said Hadid. "While I have hopes and dreams for Palestinians, none of them include the harm of a Jewish person."
"The terrorizing of innocent people is not in alignment with & does not do any good for the 'Free Palestine' movement," she added. "The idea that it does has fueled a painful, decades-long cycle of back&forth retaliation."
Hadid said that "no innocent civilian, Palestinian or Israeli, deserves to be a victim" of the bloodshed. At least 1,600 people on both sides of the war had been killed as of Tuesday, including a minimum of 14 Americans, according to the Associated Press. Thousands of others were injured or taken hostage by Hamas.
"If you are hurting, as I share my condolences today with my loved ones, both Palestinian and Jewish, I'm sending you my love & strength—whoever and wherever you are," Hadid said.
"There are a lot of complex, personal, and valid feelings, but every human deserves basic rights, treatment and security," she continued. "No matter their nationality, religion, ethnicity, or where they were born."
Gigi Hadid and her sister Bella have repeatedly spoken out in support of Palestinians and against the policies of the Israeli government in the past.
In 2021, Gigi Hadid re-shared an Instagram post on the "Palestinian struggle" by journalist and activist Noor Tagouri, who wrote: "We should all unequivocally agree that ethnic cleansing and apartheid states are the war crimes we learned about in school agreeing this should never happen again."
Hadid became embroiled in a minor controversy in early March 2022 after comparing the struggles of Palestinians to Ukrainians, with Ukraine having been invaded by the Russian military weeks earlier.
The model announced that she would be donating all of her earnings from fall 2022 fashion shows to "those suffering from the war in Ukraine, as well as continuing to support those experiencing the same in Palestine."
Mohamed Hadid's reaction to the Hamas attacks and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian war was reportedly far different than his famous daughter's, with the real estate developer dubbing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "the new Hitler" on Instagram, according to Fox News.
"This was never about Hamas," he reportedly wrote. "This to create the new graveyard to 2.5 million Palestinians ... the new Hitler of modern times."
Newsweek reached out for comment to Gigi Hadid's representative via email on Tuesday night.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
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