Fists fly at Gal Gadot’s LA screening of Hamas attack in Israel

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A Los Angeles film screening organized by Gal Gadot that showed footage from the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel turned into a brawl as police responded to calls after multiple fights broke out at the Museum of Tolerance Wednesday night.

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According to The Hollywood Reporter, pro- and anti-Israel groups clashed after the 40-plus minute film, titled Bearing Witness, ended.

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Gadot skipped the screening, but her husband, Israeli film producer Jaron Varsano, was there, as were the Oscar-nominated producer Lawrence Bender, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, producer Jamie Patricof, social impact agency chief Bonnie Abaunza, one of the stars of the Netflix-streaming Israeli drama series The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, and Rick Trank, the Oscar-winning documentarian who runs the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Moriah Films.

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke out against the violence in a social media post.

“We cannot allow current worldwide tension to devolve into this unacceptable violence in our city,” Bass wrote on X. “This is a time of immense pain and distress for thousands of Angelenos. We must stand together.”

Videos posted to X show mobs going at each other, throwing punches and hurling one another to the ground.

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According to TMZ, it’s unknown if anyone was injured or arrested, but the fight comes just days after a Jewish man was killed allegedly by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator in Thousand Oaks, near Los Angeles, on Monday.

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A total of 200 people were in attendance, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Throughout the screening, Rolling Stone reported, people in the audience could be heard gasping and moaning and exclaiming, “Oh, my God.”

One woman waving an Israel flag told the outlet that she tried speaking to the pro-Palestinian group outside the theatre, but said it was “like talking to a wall.”

“There’s so much hate there,” she said. Another attendee was heard exclaiming that the footage needed to be more graphic. “Show the rape, show the beheading of babies, the world needs to see it!”

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Earlier this week, Fox News reported that the Wonder Woman actress was “spearheading” a screening of the terrifying video, which was taken by Hamas terrorists, who infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and taking 240 people hostage.

The material, provided by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), includes clips of murder, beheadings and rapes of Jewish people, according to journalists who have watched it, including the Sun’s Warren Kinsella.

Oscar-winning Israeli film director Guy Nattiv helped lead the initiative, telling Israeli-based news outlet i24 News that it is important to show the disturbing imagery to demonstrate the ruthlessness of Hamas’ attack.

“As a filmmaker, I swore that these images of Oct. 7 would not be forgotten, and the world would see them,” he said. “Because now the denial begins — it is a fake, it is not a fake … We cannot pass by in silence.”

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Israel said it showed the “gruesome” bodycam footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack to select journalists in order to counter a “Holocaust denial-like phenomenon evolving in real time.”

Following the attack, the Israeli-born Gadot has shared social media posts supporting people in her home country along with photos of the more than 200 missing hostages with the hashtags “#ReleaseTheHostages” and “#BringThemBack.”

“I stand with Israel you should too,” Gadot posted to her 110 million Instagram followers. “The world cannot sit on the fence when these horrific acts of terror are happening!”

Her efforts have drawn support from fans with one person writing, “Using your platform of 109 MILLION to be a voice for your people. Gal we will always remember this.”

But former porn star Mia Khalifa lashed out at Gadot on social media reposting a screenshot of a magazine headline which read, “Mia Khalifa Dubs Gal Gadot ‘Genocide Barbie’ After Israel-Palestine Statement.”

“I’ve been trying to tell y’all …” the adult entertainer captioned the post.

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X: @markhdaniell

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