Gaza petition: Deneuve signs as well

French actresses Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, and Lea Seydoux, as well as the Australian activist Julian Assange, have joined the approximately 900 signatories of a letter condemning the "silence" on the "genocide" in Gaza published alongside the Cannes Film Festival, a member of the collective behind the text said to AFP on Friday.

The petition, which also pays tribute to Fatima Hassouna, a Gazan photojournalist killed by an Israeli missile and a protagonist of the documentary "Put your Soul on your Hand and Walk" presented at Cannes, was also signed by Norwegian director Joachim Trier, British filmmaker Danny Boyle, and French actor François Civil.

The director of "Put your Soul on your Hand and Walk," Iranian Sepideh Farsi, is holding a press conference Friday on the Croisette, alongside Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, and NGOs Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Its organizers emphasize the "duty of solidarity with the Palestinian people" and the need to "demand the unconditional release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas." The initial list of signatories of the op-ed published at the opening of the festival on May 13 in the French daily Liberation and the American trade magazine Variety already included several prominent names in cinema: Ralph Fiennes, Richard Gere, Javier Bardem, Pedro Almodovar, and Susan Sarandon.

Joining them were Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche, who also paid tribute to Fatima Hassouna in her opening speech, and actors in competition, such as American stars Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal.

The 25-year-old photojournalist was killed with several members of her family in a bombing on April 16, the day after the selection of her documentary at the Acid, a parallel section of the festival bringing together independent filmmakers.

After more than two and a half months of complete blockade by the Israeli army, approximately 90 trucks delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza on Wednesday, according to the U.N. 2.1 million people there are "in imminent danger of death," according to the director of emergency health operations for the World Health Organization (WHO).

Israel, which has intensified its offensive in the small coastal territory, has repeatedly denied accusations of genocide. This war was triggered by Hamas's attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, which resulted in the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Of the 251 people then held captive, 57 are still being held hostage, and 34 of them have been declared dead by the army. Israeli reprisals have killed at least 53,762 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the latest data from the Hamas Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the U.N.