Angelina Jolie has backed calls for a ceasefire amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The militant group Hamas staged an attack on Israel on 7 October, killing an estimated 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Israel has responded with heavy air strikes across Gaza, which are estimated to have killed thousands of Palestinians.
Sharing a statement on Instagram, the Oscar winner - who is also a United Nations ambassador focusing on refugees - expressed sympathy with the Israeli victims of the attack but wrote that a ceasefire was necessary due to the human cost of strikes on Gaza.
"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 mourned. "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."
The war has caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Its residents are unable to flee the war into Egypt as its border remains closed.
The Tomb Raider star continued, "What happened in Israel is an act of terror. But 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."
Asserting that the aid getting through to Gazans is insufficient, she called for hostilities to stop.
"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. The denial of aid, fuel and water is collectively punishing a people," she said. "Humanity demands an immediate ceasefire. Palestinian and Israeli lives - and the lives of all people globally - matter equally."
