American actress Angelina Jolie drew sharp criticism Friday after visiting Gaza’s border with Egypt to review aid deliveries, with Middle Eastern analysts and reporters questioning her credentials and approach to assessing the humanitarian crisis.

The 50-year-old actress traveled to Egypt’s Rafah crossing where she met with members of the Red Cross’s Muslim-country counterpart, the Red Crescent, as part of a humanitarian trip to assess aid delivery efforts and review conditions for injured Palestinians. Ms. Jolie was accompanied by a U.S. State Department official, Egypt’s migration minister, and other Egyptian officials, according to reports. 

During the visit, Ms. Jolie called for increased aid flow into Gaza and “expressed her deep appreciation for the exceptional efforts” of Egypt and its volunteers in “managing and delivering humanitarian aid with efficiency and professionalism despite the challenges,” Egypt Today Magazine reported.

Footage from Ms. Jolie’s visit circulated online, prompting journalists and politicians to question whether the visit represented a genuine humanitarian effort or a publicity stunt. Ms. Jolie has not yet publicly commented on the trip. 

A former spokesman for the state of Israel, Eylon Levy, lamented on X that it is a “shame” Ms. Jolie “is being taken for a ride by B-list Pallywood propagandists,” noting that if she traveled kilometers “to the right,” she’d “find the Israeli crossing where over 4,200 trucks enter” Gaza every week. At least four other crossings into Gaza from Israel are currently open and are used to transport aid. 

Arab-Israeli reporter Yoseph Haddad accused Ms. Jolie of being a “hypocrite” for arranging a humanitarian trip to Egypt while failing to advocate for hostages held by Hamas or express solidarity with those tortured, raped, and murdered by Palestinian terrorists on October 7, 2023. He derided Ms. Jolie as “a useful idiot in the service of Hamas” in a post on X.

Founder and executive director of a watchdog group, Antisemitism Watch, Trisha Posner, expressed similar frustration. “I am exhausted by high-profile do-gooders who appear only when the narrative suits their progressive politics,” she wrote on X. “Angelina Jolie is the latest. Silence for Israeli victims after October 7, activism now. That is not empathy. It is hypocrisy.” 

Egypt has largely kept its side of the Rafah crossing closed since 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza. Israel took control of the Palestinian side in May 2024 during its military operation in eastern Rafah. The crossing was supposed to reopen as part of the October Gaza ceasefire agreement, though progress has stagnated as Hamas has failed to hand over remains of the final Israeli hostage.

While Israel awaits the return of the final captive, it has expressed willingness to open the gates in one direction only — to allow Palestinians to exit Gaza into Egypt. Egypt has refused and has opposed allowing Palestinian refugees to settle within its borders.

Recent reports suggest that Prime Minister Netanyahu, facing pressure from President Trump during their recent White House meeting, is likely to move ahead with full reopening when he returns to Israel.

Ms. Jolie previously served as a special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency and has used her platform to speak out about refugees, women’s rights, and rape as a weapon of war. Ms. Jolie has refrained from condemning the sexual assaults carried out by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and afterward, though she has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza. She has accused the Jewish state of turning Gaza, which she called an “open-air prison,” into a “mass grave.” 

Ms. Jolie’s father, actor Jon Voight, has opposed his daughter’s anti-Israel advocacy, claiming that she had “been exposed to propaganda” and “been influenced by antisemitic people.” 

“It comes from ignorance, like everything else,” Mr. Voight said in 2024. “It’s like, why are these kids in the universities siding with Hamas, right? It’s because of ignorance. They don’t know the story.”