French actress and head of the Cannes film festival jury Juliette Binoche paid tribute to Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, slain by Israel, at the opening ceremony on Tuesday, saying she “should have been with us tonight.”
Hassouna, who was killed in an Israeli air strike last month, is the subject of the documentary "Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk", that will premiere in Cannes on Thursday by exiled Iranian director Sepideh Farsi.
"In every region of the world artists are fighting every day and make resistance into art," she told a VIP crowd of actors and directors on the French Riviera.
"On April 16, at dawn in Gaza, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna and 10 relatives were killed by a missile that hit their home."
She added: "The day before she had learned that the film she features in had been selected for Cannes.
"She should have been here tonight with us."
More than 380 film figures including "Schindler's List" actor Ralph Fiennes and Richard Gere denounced "genocide" in Gaza in an open letter released Monday by pro-Palestinian activists on the eve of the Cannes film festival.
Binoche was initially said by organizers to have signed the petition but her name was not on the final published list.
Speaking to reporters earlier Tuesday, she said "you'll maybe understand it a little later", hinting that she might make a statement about Hassouna at the opening ceremony.
In her remarks, Binoche also referenced "the (Israeli) hostages of October 7 and all hostages, prisoners, the drowned who endure terror and die with a terrible feeling of abandonment and indifference."
Israel launched a full-blown assault on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 in retaliation to an attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
In addition, the group took 251 people hostage.
The Israeli offensive has killed at least 52,908 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Gaza health ministry, which is considered reliable by the U.N.
Media freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said the Israeli military is carrying out a "massacre" of Palestinian journalists, with nearly 200 killed.
