24-07-2025
'A despicable disgrace': Geldof condemns Israel over Gaza hunger
Live Aid founder Bob Geldof has condemned the Israeli government's role in the Gaza crisis, calling it "a despicable disgrace" and saying it is deliberately starving children.
"Their government is clearly out of control, and their army probably as well… It is a despicable disgrace. And for the Israeli people to allow this in their name is a despicable disgrace," he told Prime Time.
"It is so utterly bizarre that we're talking about Israel, given the horror of their own past. It is bewildering to me," he said.
"I was the founding patron of the Aegis Trust for Genocide Studies, which is a branch of the British National Holocaust Museum. I spent many times with the survivors of the Holocaust" he told presenter Miriam O'Callaghan, "were they alive now? They would possibly die of shame. The shame of this, Miriam, the shame for Israel... This is unconscionable."
His comments come amid escalating warnings from UN agencies about catastrophic levels of starvation in Gaza.
Earlier, Louise Wateridge, a senior emergency officer with UNRWA, described the situation on the ground as "completely unbearable," with people stepping over bodies at aid centres in desperate searches for food.
She said more than 6,000 aid trucks - half carrying essential food and medical supplies - are currently blocked just outside Gaza by Israeli restrictions.
UNICEF also warned that ongoing bombardment and mass displacement have rendered large parts of Gaza inaccessible for humanitarian operations, with basic health and nutrition services near collapse.
Mr Geldof appeared on Prime Time after a report featuring footage and images taken in recent days of malnourished and hungry children in Gaza.
In the report, Oxfam aid worker Bushra Khalidi described the actions of Israel as "collective punishment," while Caroline Willeman of Doctor Without Borders, speaking from northern Gaza, told Prime Time that she had never witnessed anything like what she was seeing currently during her career.
She described how Palestinian colleagues who are caring for sick and dying children are themselves unable to feed themselves or their own children.
"We are witnessing a genocide," Ms Willeman said, "we are witnessing a genocide because we are witnessing people from whom food is being upheld, from whom water is being upheld."
"It literally is beyond our comprehension. Look at your face, look at the aid workers there," Mr Geldof said, "What are we living in? I cannot look at those pictures. Obviously, they remind me of 1984, but in completely different circumstances."
Between 1983 and 1985 a major famine erupted in Ethopia as a result of drought and conflict. Footage in the news media drove Mr Geldof and Midge Ure to found Band Aid in 1984 to raise funds for famine relief initiatives.
A year later, Live Aid, a two-event concert performed simultaneously in the UK and US was held. It featured some of the most famous music acts in the world at the time.
