Dawn French has been accused of dismissing the Oct 7 Hamas attacks in Israel in a new social media video.

The British comedian and presenter, 67, posted a video of herself to X in which she appears to mimic Israel’s supporters amid the military campaign in Gaza.

In the video, published by French on the social media platform on Thursday, she says about the conflict in the Middle East: “Complicated, no, but nuanced. But [the] bottom line is no.”

She then goes on to mimic apparent defences of Israel’s military campaign in neighbouring Gaza since the Hamas-led massacre in 2023, saying: “‘Yeah but you know they did a bad thing to us’... Yeah, but no.

“‘But we want that land and there’s a lot of history…’. No. ‘These people are not even people are they really?’ No.”

In response to the viral tweet, which has been viewed more than half-a-million times in the 24 hours since it was published, Tracy-Ann Oberman, the West End star and playwright, branded French’s tone as “mocking”.