Canadian singer Shawn Mendes and US Dutch Palestinian model Bella Hadid used Instagram this week to call for support for Palestinians in Gaza.
Mendes shared his post with 68 million followers, opening with the words free palestine. There is a genocide happening before our eyes, Mendes wrote. The senseless killing in Gaza must stop. The children and families in Palestine have suffered for far too long, and they need our help.
He addressed other musicians directly. My friends and fellow artists, I know it can feel scary to speak up; I feel it now as I type this, he wrote. The more of us that use our voice, the closer we are to change.
Hadid announced she had donated $50,000 to Tents of Hope’s Winter Tent Kits for Gaza. She said the money would provide 100 families with a waterproof tent, blankets and mattresses.
Winter has arrived in Gaza, and for hundreds of thousands of families, the only thing between them and the cold is a worn-out tent, she wrote.
Aid groups on the ground estimated that Gaza needed at least 300,000 tents.
I’m not sharing this for the number, she wrote, adding that $25 could buy a family a blanket and $250 a whole tent. I’m sharing it because I believe that if enough of us act, the gap closes one family at a time.
Her post featured an illustration stating that Gaza is flooding and that over 70,000 tents had been destroyed.
Hadid and Mendes both took part in the Artists for Aid benefit concert in Los Angeles in January. Sudanese-Canadian singer and poet Mustafa organized the event, which Hadid and Chilean American actor Pedro Pascal co-hosted.
Proceeds went to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and the American Sudanese Physicians Association. Mendes performed his 2018 track Youth with American singer Maggie Rogers at the concert.
He first spoke about the war during a show at Lisbon’s MEO Arena in August 2025, telling the audience he regretted not speaking out sooner. What’s been happening in Gaza has been absolutely breaking my heart, he said.
