Irish band U2 has launched a press release on Israel and Gaza, saying that the battle has now reached “uncharted territory.”

In a joint message posted on U2’s website and social media on Sunday, the band wrote: “Everybody has lengthy been horrified by what’s unfolding in Gaza — but the blocking of humanitarian help and now plans for a navy takeover of Gaza Metropolis has taken the battle into uncharted territory. We usually are not specialists in the politics of the area, but we wish our viewers to know the place we every stand.”

Every member of the enduring band — Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. — then penned their very own particular person statements expressing complicated feelings in regards to the long-running battle in the Center East. As well as, the band has pledged to donate to Medical Support for Palestinians.

In his assertion, frontman and activist Bono first acknowledged the Oct. 7 Hamas assaults on Israel, which killed about 1,200 folks with 251 hostages being taken, writing that “the rape, homicide, and abduction of Israelis on the Nova music pageant was evil.” Nevertheless, he added that as time went on, “Israel’s revenge for the Hamas assault appeared increasingly disproportionate and disinterested in the equally harmless civilian lives in Gaza.”

In accordance to the United Nations, which cites Gaza’s Hamas-run Well being Ministry, over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed in the battle as of Aug. 6. On Friday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities accredited a plan to take over Gaza Metropolis, the capital of the Gaza Strip, which senior UN officers have warned towards.

“When did a simply warfare to defend the nation flip into an unjust land seize? I hoped Israel would return to cause. I used to be making excuses for a folks seared and formed by the expertise of Holocaust… who understood the specter of extermination will not be merely a worry but a reality… I re-read Hamas’ constitution of 1988[3]… it’s an evil learn (Article Seven!),” Bono continued. “But I additionally understood that Hamas usually are not the Palestinian folks… a individuals who have for many years endured and proceed to endure marginalization, oppression, occupation, and the systematic stealing of the land that’s rightfully theirs. Given our personal historic expertise of oppression and occupation, it’s little surprise so many right here in Eire have campaigned for many years for justice for the Palestinian folks.”

Bono then slammed Netanyahu, writing: “The Authorities of Israel will not be the nation of Israel, but the Authorities of Israel led by Benjamin Netanyahu immediately deserves our categorical and unequivocal condemnation. There is no such thing as a justification for the brutality he and his far proper authorities have inflicted on the Palestinian folks… in Gaza… in the West Financial institution. And never simply since October 7, properly earlier than it too… although the extent of depravity and lawlessness we’re seeing now appears like uncharted territory.”

The Edge addressed his assertion to Netanyahu, asking him a number of questions “in the hope of partaking the conscience and sanity of the folks of Israel.”

“Do you actually imagine that such devastation — inflicted so deliberately and relentlessly on a civilian inhabitants — can occur with out heaping generational disgrace upon these accountable?” The Edge wrote in half, ending his assertion with: “We know from our personal expertise in Eire that peace will not be made by way of dominance. Peace is made when folks sit down with their opponents — after they acknowledge the equal dignity of all, even these they as soon as feared or despised.”

Bassist Clayton stated, “If Israel strikes to colonize the Gaza Strip, it can completely undo any chance of lasting peace or resolution for hostilities. Forgetting the morality of the state of affairs for a second, doesn’t the technical superiority of Israel’s fashionable military make a boast of its precision focusing on of people from hundreds of miles away? And in that case why are the IDF bombarding a civilian inhabitants from the skies indiscriminately destroying any little bit of shelter and infrastructure? Preserving civilian life is a alternative in this warfare.”

Mullen Jr. added that Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas assaults was “anticipated,” as was a “floor warfare” and “aerial bombardment and destruction.” Nevertheless, the drummer stated that what was not anticipated was “the indiscriminate decimation of most properties and hospitals in Gaza, with a majority of these killed being girls and youngsters” and “imposing famine.”

“The ability to change this obscenity is in the palms of Israel,” he added. “I undoubtedly help Israel’s proper to exist and I additionally imagine Palestinians deserve the identical proper and a state of their very own. Silence serves none of us.”

Learn every member of U2’s full statements here.