Left-wing Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo repeated pro-Hamas propaganda about four rescued Israeli hostages on Saturday, using the phrase “4 for 274” to claim that the cost in Palestinian lives during the operation was too high.
Hamas has claimed that upwards of 274 people were killed in the central Gaza city of Nuseirat on Saturday, when Israeli commandoes launched a daring operation to free four Israeli civilians who had been held for four months.
That figure has not been confirmed independently and does not distinguish between terrorists and civilians. Israel puts the number of casualties at less than 100, and notes that many may have been killed by Hamas, which fired rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons at the Israeli forces as they were leaving a crowded market area.
Pro-Hamas outlets almost immediately began circulating memes with the “200=4” message (the numbers varied):
♦️ الحدث في النصيرات ... 4 = 200 !
— مرصد - marsad (@marsadnewss) June 8, 2024
الاحتلال ينفذ مجزرة كبرى بحق المدنيين الفلسطينيين لتحرير 4 أسرى "مدنيين" بتأييد ودعم أمريكي، المزيد من المعلومات في هذا السرد>> https://t.co/sjIsxHQIne#مرصد pic.twitter.com/nTO9D3xBPH
The “4” refers to the number of Israeli hostages rescued; the larger number refers to the alleged Palestinian casualties.
Ruffalo echoed that theme in a post on X (formerly Twitter), and described the hostages as “returned,” not “rescued”:
It’s so good to see the hostages returned. A ceasefire would have gotten many more hostages back and no civilians and children killed. This siege is cruel and senseless. Grinding innocent human beings and their culture into blood soaked rubble and dust, to be buried and…
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) June 9, 2024
Hamas has rejected any ceasefire that does not end the war permanently, allowing it to survive and attack again.
The taking of hostages is a war crime, as is the refusal of Hamas to allow the Red Cross to visit the hostages. Forcing hostages to perform slave labor; coercing them to recite Islamic prayers; torturing them; and malnourishing them are all war crimes, ongoing every day in Hamas captivity.
Ruffalo did call for the hostages’ unconditional release in October.
He has also been a font of anti-Israel propaganda, recently claiming that “machines are hunting down people” in Gaza.
He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
