The father of Gigi and Bella Hadid apologized for sending homophobic messages to a Black gay congressman.

Mohamed Hadid, the father of supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid, has apologized for obsessively pushing "hate" messages to gay African-Latino Congressman Richie Torres. The New York Post reported that Hadid, a real estate developer, "bombarded Rep. Ritchie Torres with dozens of racist and homophobic messages," describing them as "hateful," and published screenshots of the correspondence. The messages were prompted by Torres' support for Israel during Israel's recent war with Hamas. Torres recently visited Israel, where he visited the border with the Gaza Strip and the site of the Nova festival deaths, according to The Jerusalem Post. Hadid, 75, was born into a Palestinian Muslim family in Nazareth. He and his family fled to Lebanon during the 1947-1949 Palestine War. They lived in Syria, Damascus, Tunisia and Greece before moving to Washington, D.C., when he was 14. Richie Torres is the first LGBTQ+ congressman of Afro-Latino descent.

One of the messages from the verified Instagram account of Hadid to Torres reads: "You are worse than the rats in the New York sewer.

They have bigger brains. You could get a job as a bouncer in a gay bar." Another says: "You are just an unusual Black person and a loud supporter of Israel and AIPAC, looking to profit more than $500,000." The message states: "Make sure you dress like a KKK member to hide your ugly gray face." The 36-year-old Torres condemned these messages, saying: "Whether it's dehumanizing me as worse than the rats in the New York sewer or ordering me to dress like a KKK member to 'hide my gray face,' Mr. Hadid has thrown almost every racist insult at me except for calling me the N-word." "The fact that Mr. Hadid felt so confident in demonizing and dehumanizing a Black member of Congress reveals the tragic truth about our politics: if you are a person of color and support Israel, you are openly used for racist insults," he added.

After the publication of the story, Hadid apologized in an Instagram post, describing himself as a refugee, and wrote: "I need to apologize. Not for feeling anger, but for the words I used to express it. I wanted to convey how Mr. Torres is a snitch used by Israel." He went on to accuse Israel of "pinkwashing its atrocities, using its projected gay rights as a shield against their human rights violations... I used the wrong words to express my anger, but the anger is justified."