Rachel Riley has lashed out at Kay Burley, calling the Sky News presenter’s reporting ‘astonishing, illogical and utterly revolting’.
The Countdown presenter, 37, who has previously ripped into the BBC for its refusal to brand Hamas a terrorist organisation, and has now blasted Burley for her questioning towards a spokesperson for the Israeli Government.
Following the news that Hamas will release dozens of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, with 50 of the roughly 240 hostages set to be agreed under a four-day ceasefire deal, Burley echoed comments from a hostage negotiator.
She asked: ‘He made the comparison between the 50 hostages Hamas has promised to release, as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians that Israel has said it will release, and he has made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives?’
Taken aback, spokesperson Eylon Levy admitted he was left ‘speechless’ as he shared the clip on social media, which saw him replying: ‘That is an astonishing accusation, if we could release one prisoner for every one hostage we would obviously do that.
‘We are operating in horrific circumstances, we are not choosing to release these prisoners who have blood on their hands, we are talking about people who have been convicted of stabbing and shooting attacks.’
He went on to say that it was ‘outrageous’ to suggest that Israel being willing to release more prisoners than hostages they would get back ‘somehow suggests that we don’t care about Palestinian lives.’
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‘Really, that’s a disgusting accusation,’ he told Burley.
Riley was just as outraged, sharing on Twitter images of the children who are being held hostage alongside alleged screenshots of the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released, one of which read: ‘The women guilty mainly of stabbing or shooting attacks; the young men generally aged 17-19 and in terror groups. The phrase “woman and children” doesn’t quite cover it… And certainly there are no 10-month-old babies.’
‘Astonishing, illogical and utterly revolting from Kay Burley,’ Riley wrote, with another person saying: ‘@KayBurley has hit the lowest of the low in this one. How can anyone with any moral compass, spin it so that giving away MORE prisoners than receiving less children hostages is not valuing Palestinian lives? Does she realise how backwards and completely messed up that is?’
Others called for Burley to be sacked, with one saying: ‘She needs to be taken off air permanently.’
Another wrote: ‘It’s beyond any sense of reality- it’s as if we’re all in some surreal cartoon- he handled her biased, rotten nonsense very well considering.’
Burley later took to X, writing: ‘Morning everyone, We often put one side of an argument to a guest so they can offer a counterclaim Yesterday, I raised a controversial view from an earlier guest to allow another to respond Each morning we’re dedicated to presenting fairly the news of this war.’
This comes after claims, as reported by Sky News, that 90% of the 300 Palestinian prisoners who may be released are aged 18 or under.
The list of Palestinians is said to include around 60 female prisoners, with charges ranging from harming the security of the region, throwing stones, and possessing weapons.
The deal does not mean an end to the war, which erupted on October 7 after Hamas stormed across the border into southern Israel and killed at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped hundreds of others.
In the following weeks of Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion, more than 14,500 Palestinians have been killed, with the head of the Hamas government press office saying at a press conference on Wednesday evening that the figure includes more than 6,000 Palestinian children and 4,000 women.
‘Which means that 69% of the victims were children and women,’ he said.
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