Bob Geldof announced Gaza Aid 2025

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Wait no......Bob is simply reminiscing about Band Aid 40 years ago. Has Bob given up his passionate zeal or as is more highly likely like most high profile musicians decided the Gaza conflict is one to stay well away from and they don't want to be seen the dupes of Hamas propaganda.

Not many big names on TV and the stage are wading into this for good reason and those that do are certainly the naive lovely types.

@Stripes56 but it’s not analogous to killing a civilian as collateral damage to eliminating a rapist or a killer is it? Embedding Hamas terrorists within civilian enclaves is the whole cornerstone of their military strategy. How could anyone expect Israel to reward its enemy for adopting this strategy by not fighting back?

Of course if Egypt had opened its border and helped facilitate the evacuation of civilians from a war zone it wouldn’t have been such a humanitarian disaster.

So- if it was a soldier who committed a rape or killed innocent people- would you condone killing their family and other innocent people in the building? We are talking about soldiers who are not integral leaders nor have had a strategic role?

I not saying Israel can’t seek punishment- when they can assassinate people in a targeted way.

I said 'its obviously immoral to target civilian buildings'. How is that not countensncing criticism of the IDF?

You made no mention whatsoever of Hamas's deliberate and calculated strategy of hiding in buildings and building a military network of tunnels under a civilian shield of buildings that they had no intention of protecting.

Who is not countenancing criticism of whom?

We can agree that Hamas soldiers have chosen to be in civilian areas. It’s probably their homes they are returning to sometimes.

However- do you think killing a soldier, who has not played a strategic role, is proportionate when it means multiple innocent family members including children are killed, including other innocent people, when Israel can kill people in a targeted way?

Sorry but this is ridiculous. You don't seem to understand warfare at all, or how those cuddly homeloving Hamas boys operate. What the hell is a soldier who has not played a strategic role? Please read up on urban and guerilla warfare from people who have a clue what they are talking about.

They don't care how many die, they just don't care.

@SharonEllis

I don’t agree with you that all soldiers within Hamas will have played a strategic role within the the organisation. Israel claims to have killed thousands of Hamas soldiers- and does let us know when leaders have been killed. It is an urban war zone, but there still needs to be proportionate responses. I guess US must have had the same concerns when it stopped selling Israel dumb bombs under Biden.

The killing and maiming of children in Gaza is seen as a necessary evil by Israel, but the numbers are so high - it feels like retribution for 7/10. Even Israeli military leaders said some months ago- there was no further advantage in the war continuing, yet children and innocent adults are still being killed.

We can agree on the moral outrage of what has happened in Gaza being justified. However, the blame cannot all be on Hamas, as Israel decided on its own rules of engagement.

It does feel that some posters cannot countenance criticism of Israel. I am sure you will also raise no concerns about Israel withholding medicines, food, fuel, limiting water into Gaza and now concerns about ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

Someone said earlier today that "only 30,000" had been killed.

Only.

I never said that every soldier would play a strategic role in the organisation. I dont even know what that means. In a war you don't make decisions on the criteria for killing individual soldiers. How the hell would Israel know the biographies and role of every individual combatant. Do you think they sit there with a spreadsheet or something. Being an enemy combatant is the only criteria they legitimately need. What on earth are you on about?

That sums up Hamas very well.
They do not care how many Gazans die.

Jewish people care about genocides too.

@SharonEllis You did say - in your own words- all soldiers play a strategic role.
Go back and read your own post from yesterday @21.30.

So now we agree, it seems, that not all soldiers do not play a strategic role.

Israel clearly knows who are Hamas leaders - they have told us.

The principle of proportionality- even in urban warfare and guérilla tactics- needs to be taken into account and the military advantage determined- even more so when it’s military leaders have raised concerns about what is to be gained by continuing the conflict.

No I did not. I said 'What the hell is a soldier who has not played a strategic role?' I was questioning the whole concept. I have never heard of it and don't understand what its got to do with anything. All combatants are a legitimate targets in a war. Of course Israel knows who some of Hamas's leaders are. Obviously they won't know everything about the inner workings of Hamas. Hamas is in chaos, I don't suppose they know sometimes. All this talk of trying to unpick levels of precision and hierarchy in Israel's strategy against Hamas when Hamas are a terrorist organisation that by definition indiscriminately attacks civilians in Israel and in Gaza, booby trapping residential buildings that will inevitably sometimes kill their own population, firing rockets that regularly fall short and kill civilians in Gaza. This conversation is really going nowhere.

Apparently Bob Geldof didn't do something.

Agree and how many of their own people have to martyr themselves.

I don’t know why you think a 73 year old man would have the energy to organise another Live Aid event?

Or why it should even be him?

I think there are very few main stream important artists of our time that wish to comment on this conflict as quite rightly they see it as a complex war they do not wish to comment on in public. I think this is quite right.