TALK TV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer has been condemned for suggesting the deaths of civilians in Lebanon and Syria after hundreds of handheld pagers exploded were “collateral damage”.
Pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded near-simultaneously on Tuesday in an apparent Israeli operation, killing at least 12 people, including two children, and wounding nearly 3000.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.
It was then reported there were further explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon on Wednesday.
Hartley-Brewer was speaking to a caller on TalkTV who was stressing that while he did not support the actions of groups like Hezbollah or Hamas, he wanted to see a “consistent application of international law”.
Julia Hartley-Brewer calls a 10 year old child who was blown up and murdered "collateral damage." @JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/XHr0dcfk9N
— 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙪𝙮 (@V_ForVanilla) September 19, 2024
The presenter responded: “I don’t think blowing up the pagers of terrorists in Hezbollah is an evil act. I think it’s an act we should all applaud.”
When the caller began pointing out the civilians who had been killed as a result of the attack, she went on: “Sometimes there is a collateral damage, people die in wars.
“Would it bother you if any eight-year-old Israeli girls got killed in northern Israel by Hezbollah firing rockets or would you justify that?”
A 10-year-old girl was reportedly among those who died as the pagers exploded.
People have reacted with fury to the clip on social media with several users calling her “disgraceful”.
One user said: “It's increasingly hard to watch these floundering attempts to justify the indiscriminate slaughter and maiming of innocent people.
“Our media are on the wrong side, and people are noticing.”
Others suggested her response to the caller was “vile”.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months.
The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.
Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby-trapped cellphones, and it’s widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran’s nuclear programme in 2010.
