'Sex and the City' star Cynthia Nixon goes on hunger strike to call for cease-fire in Gaza

"Sex and the City" star Cynthia Nixon is on a hunger strike to demand a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

In an interview Monday, the "And Just Like That…" actress called on President Joe Biden to "make a cease-fire happen."

"The deaths that we have seen are largely due to the bombs, but so many Palestinians now are on the verge of starvation. Only 7% of the nutrition they need is being let in on a daily basis," Nixon said. "So we are here hunger-striking just to sort of mirror to Biden the kind of deprivation that is happening in Gaza, and how he has it within his power to make a cease-fire happen and to allow humanitarian aid in."

Nixon will join progressive lawmakers in the strike for two days, while some Democratic state congressional representatives will strike for up to five days, according to Time.

The strike comes amid a pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas, in which Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged.

"As the mother of Jewish children whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors, I have been asked by my son to use any voice I have to affirm, as loudly as possible, that 'never again' means never again for everyone," Nixon said Monday in a speech outside the White House. "In seven weeks, Israel has killed more civilians on a tiny strip of land than was killed in 20 years of war in the entire country of Afghanistan."

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The actress is also a longtime activist and former gubernatorial candidate, having run for governor of New York against incumbent Andrew Cuomo in 2018.

"I am sick and tired of people explaining this away by saying that civilian casualties are a routine toll of war," Nixon continued. "There is nothing routine about these figures. There is nothing routine about these deaths. I would like to make a personal plea to a president who has himself experienced such devastating personal loss to connect with that empathy for which he is so well known, and to look at the children of Gaza, and imagine that they were his children."

Dozens of entertainers have called for a cease-fire and decried civilian deaths amid the Israel-Hamas war. Rachel McAdams, Oscar Isaac, Bradley Cooper, David Oyelowo and Ben Affleck, among many others, signed a letter requesting an end to the "devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors" in Israel and Gaza.

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Israel-Hamas war truce nears end

Israel has been pounding Gaza since militants slipped across the border into Israel on Oct. 7 on a mission of destruction, killing 1,200 people before racing back into Gaza with an estimated 240 hostages. Israel's response has been to level swaths of Gaza in a military campaign that Palestinian authorities say has killed more than 13,000 people.

A temporary cease-fire began Friday and initially was to last four days, allowing the release of 50 Israeli hostages and 150 Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners. Talks resulted in a two-day extension through Wednesday that allowed for more releases.

Negotiators from at least five countries were working feverishly toward an extension of the cease-fire while Hamas announced Wednesday that three Israeli hostages have died, including a 10-month-old child.

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The last scheduled release of hostages held by the militants, this one including 10 Israeli citizens and two Russians, was underway Wednesday, Israel's military said. Once completed, Israel is expected to free 30 Palestinian women and minors from prison.

Hamas leaders are willing to extend the truce for four days and release more Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, the Times of Israel reported, citing a source close to the militant group. Israeli officials also have expressed interest in extending the cease-fire in concert with the release of more hostages.

But a senior Israeli official who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity said that, despite reports to the contrary, he was "not aware of any possibility" to turn the pause into a longer-term cease-fire involving all the remaining hostages, including men and soldiers, being released in exchange for all Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Contributing: John Bacon and Jorge L. Ortiz

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