Rachel Riley slams Sky News' Kay Burley over 'revolting' Hamas hostages question

24 November 2023 , 10:06

1190     0

Rachel Riley slams Sky News' Kay Burley over 'revolting' Hamas hostages question

Countdown's Rachel Riley has taken a swipe at Sky News presenter Kay Burley, labelling her interview with an Israeli Government spokesperson as "astonishing, illogical and utterly revolting."

The Strictly Come Dancing star criticised Kay for her line of questioning towards Eylon Levy on Thursday, following reports that Hamas will release dozens of hostages from the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

As part of the deal, the two sides agreed to a four-day ceasefire during which time 50 women and children under the age of 19 would be freed in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli detention. The truce started at 7am local time on Friday morning. Qatar's chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, has said that there would be "no attack whatsoever" during the ceasefire period. "No military movements, no expansion, nothing."

Rachel slammed Kay's question as 'illogical' and 'revolting' (Sky News/Youtube)

Levy expressed his outrage at the suggestion that Israel's willingness to release more prisoners than hostages, 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."

Rachel, who has formerly criticized the BBC for its refusal to label Hamas as a terrorist organisation, shared her disgust on X. The 37-year-old posted pictures of the children held hostage and alleged screenshots of the list of Palestinian prisoners set 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."

EastEnders' Jake Wood's snap of son has fans pointing out the pair's likeness

Rachel then blasted the Sky News presenter, writing, "Astonishing, illogical and utterly revolting from Kay Burley." Another user added: "@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?"

Some viewers demanded that Kay be fired, with one person stating: "She needs to be taken off air permanently." Another chimed in saying: "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 follows a report by Sky News revealing that 90% of the 300 Palestinian prisoners who may be released are aged 18 or under.

Emma Dooney