Rachel Riley has slammed Kay Burley’s reporting, calling it “astonishing, illogical, and utterly revolting.”
The Countdown host, 37, has already chastised the BBC for failing to label Hamas a terrorist outfit, and has now chastised Burley for questioning an Israeli government spokeswoman.
Burley repeated statements from a hostage negotiator following the revelation that Hamas will release scores of hostages held in the Gaza Strip in return for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, with 50 of the roughly 240 detainees due to be freed under a four-day truce accord.
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 claim that it was ‘outrageous’ to suggest that Israel’s willingness to release more detainees than hostages would imply that ‘we don’t care about Palestinian lives.’
‘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. https://t.co/HG9TX2QVGK pic.twitter.com/ftCsjCvg5J
— Rachel Riley MBE 💙 (@RachelRileyRR) November 23, 2023
‘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.’
This comes after Sky News claimed that 90% of the 300 Palestinian inmates who may be released are under the age of 18.
According to reports, there are around 60 female Palestinian detainees, with allegations ranging from endangering regional security to hurling stones and having firearms.
The agreement does not signify the end of the battle, which began on October 7 when Hamas poured across the border into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, the majority of whom were civilians, and kidnapping hundreds more.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been murdered in the weeks since, with two-thirds of them being women and kids, and more than 2,700 more missing and feared to be buried beneath debris.
