Celebrities including Billie Eilish, the director Ava DuVernay, the Poor Things stars Mark Ruffalo and Ramy Youssef and many more showed up to the red carpet for the 96th Academy Awards wearing red pins in support of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as a protest delayed stars’ arrivals.

“We’re all calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We’re calling for the safety of everyone involved. We really want lasting justice and peace for the Palestinian people,” Youssef said during a red carpet interview. “We really just want to say, ‘let’s just stop killing children.’ There’s so much there to process and it feels like the easiest way to have the conversations that people want to have is when there isn’t an active bombing campaign happening.”

The pins are part of an effort launched by Artists4Ceasefire, a group of individuals in the entertainment industry who penned an open letter to Joe Biden to demand a ceasefire.

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“Beyond our pain and mourning for all of the people there and their loved ones around the world we are motivated by an unbending will to stand for our common humanity. We stand for freedom, justice, dignity and peace for all people – and a deep desire to stop more bloodshed,” the letter, signed by celebrities including Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Stewart, Mahershala Ali, Jennifer Lopez and Ava DuVernay reads.

Alongside Eilish, Ruffalo, DuVernay and Youssef, the Nimona actor Eugene Lee Yang, the director Misan Harriman, nominated for best live action short film for The After, and the writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania, nominated for best documentary feature for Four Daughters, were also seen wearing the pins.

Ahead of and during the red carpet, pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic in front of the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. They shouted at fans and stars alike: “Ceasefire now! Free Palestine.”

The “hundreds” of protesters also delayed the arrival of many big stars, with a reporter for the New York Times claiming that they “shut down the cross street of Highland and Fountain, a main thoroughfare”. The reporter also noted that the Academy sent golf carts to retrieve the stars who got stuck.

Before Sunday’s ceremony, the red pins made appearances at the Grammys and Screen Actors Guild awards (Sag). On the 2024 Grammys red carpet, the Boygenius members Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker wore them; Tony Shalhoub and Ebon Moss-Bachrach later rocked them at the Sag awards.

There were also stars seen wearing buttons with the Palestinian flag, including the Anatomy of a Fall stars Milo Machado-Graner and Swann Arlaud.

Read more about the 2024 Oscars:

Here’s our news wrap and full list of winners – now read Peter Bradshaw’s verdict
Al Pacino, British mothers and a codpiece envelope: the real winners and losers of the night
Relive how the ceremony unfolded with our liveblog and get up to speed with the top viral moments and the best quotes of the night
Have a gander at how the stars looked on the red carpet and at the show