'I've held a dead baby': Rob Delaney slams Israel war on Gaza

American comedian and actor Rob Delaney has highlighted the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and denounced Israel’s ongoing aggression in the enclave.

Speaking on the 10 July episode of show ‘We’re Not Kidding’ of Mehdi Hassan's new media outlet Zeteo, Delaney said that the tragic loss of his two-year-old son in 2018 forced him to speak out against Israel’s attacks on children in Gaza.

"So I've held a dead baby, my own, what I do not have in common with the people in Gaza… is once my baby died, I did not have to worry about the safety of my other children," he told Hassan.

Hasan and Delaney discussed the dehumanisation of Palestinians and the lack of empathy towards them in Western media coverage of the war.

"Because I’ve been through that, I’m not afraid of somebody online going 'Mr Delaney, F*ck off', you know what I mean?" he explained, describing how he is no longer concerned with the backlash with speaking out over Israel’s war in Gaza.

As early as 17 October, Delaney warned that the Israeli military was planning to "commit effective genocide in Gaza",  in an editorial he penned for The Guardian.

"Its order for the residents of northern Gaza to evacuate is impossible to implement. The Israelis know it, we know it…children holding their younger siblings will be crushed by debris and they will rot where they die," he wrote.

In social media posts in the same month, Delaney also directed comments at US President Joe Biden over the treatment of Palestinians.

"Well over 1m Palestinians are being ethnically cleansed RIGHT NOW with American weapons. Should we appeal to your ‘legacy’ or some shit if you cannot see them as human? Stop it! Stop it now!" he wrote on X.

The interview comes as a new study estimates that the true death toll from Gaza could reach more than 186,000 people, according to The Lancet medical journal.

The ministry of health in Gaza says over 38,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October.

The war on the besieged strip has plunged it into a deep humanitarian crisis and wreaked havoc on the enclave's infrastructure.