Gal Gadot 'heartbroken' over ongoing violence in Middle East

Gal Gadot has issued a heartfelt statement about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

The Israeli-born star spoke out as tensions in the Middle East boiled over, leading to Israel's military conducting airstrikes across Gaza, which killed at least 28 Palestinians, and Hamas firing more than 1,000 rockets into Jerusalem.

"My heart breaks. My country is at war," the Wonder Woman star wrote on social media. "I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long.

"Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace (sic). I pray for better days."

However, due to the polarising nature of the situation, Gadot was faced with thousands of negative comments, with some Instagram users accusing her of supporting “ethnic cleansing” and “mass genocide", prompting her to disable comments on the post.

Gadot served two years as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces as part of the country's mandatory military service.

Fighting erupted on Monday after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension, with at least 67 people in Gaza and seven people in Israel killed.