07-05-2025
Behind the Story: Gaza aid blockade, pressure on EBU over Eurovision, and the conclave
In the latest episode of Behind the Story, the new podcast from RTÉ Wews, Katie Hannon, Fran McNulty, and David McCullagh discuss Gaza.
Things are getting even worse for those there - starvation has taken hold due to the aid blockade and Israeli politicians are talking openly about taking over the territory and displacing Palestinians from it.
The more recent images coming into newsrooms across the world show people climbing over each other to get food, while others look broken as they cry over bodies covered in white blankets.
Yesterday Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Israel's blockade"clearly constitutes a war crime", while today Ireland and five other countries released a joint statement calling the plan a "dangerous new escalation".
But, as noted in an editorial in the Financial Times this week, much of the West remains silent.
US President Donald Trump is set to visit the Middle East next week, and its thought that Israel will move to carry out its military plan after that.
"What we have been seeing is horrific, and now we are seeing it come to a point where there has to be intervention, because it has simply gone too far, and that's what many countries are now saying", Fran said.
"What we have seen coming out of there on our televisions and on our phones over the last 19 months has been indescribably horrific. But there is something about seeing starving children that pushes it into another level" Katie said.
The group also discuss the arguments around Israel's participation in Eurovision next week, following news that RTÉ's Director General Kevin Bakhurst asked the European Broadcasting Union for a discussion on the issue.
Fran also chats about the conclave from Rome, as he keeps an eye on the chimney above the Sistine Chapel.
You can listen to David, Katie, and Fran's analysis on the situation on Behind the Story which is available on the RTÉ Radio Player.
