Comedian Pete Davidson opened “Saturday Night Live” with a moving monologue about the violence in Israel and Gaza and how the bloodshed brought back the pain of losing his firefighter father in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“This week we’ve seen horrific images and stories coming out of Israel and Gaza and I know what you’re thinking: Who better to comment on this than Pete Davidson,” he told the audience on Saturday.
“In many ways I’m a good person to talk about it because when I was seven years old my father was killed in a terrorist attack.” “So I know something about what that’s like,” he explained.
“I’ve seen so many horrible images of suffering children this week, Israeli and Palestinian children, and it took me back to a really horrible, horrible place, and no one in this world deserves to suffer like that, especially not children. “
More than 1,300 people were killed in Israel after Hamas launched a series of terrorist attacks, and more than 2,200 people were killed in Israel’s retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Comedian Pete Davidson opened Saturday Night Live with a moving monologue about the violence in Israel and Gaza
Davidson said the bloodshed brought back the pain of losing his firefighter father in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
“No one in this world deserves to suffer like this, especially not children,” the comedian said
Davidson’s father, Scott Davidson, died on September 11, 2001, when Davidson was just seven years old.
Previously, the star revealed that he found out about his father’s death through the news.
“One evening I turned on the TV and just saw my father on TV,” he said. “I thought, ‘Oh, okay.’ And they said, “These are all the firefighters who are dead, so to speak,” he told the Real Ones podcast earlier this year.
“After my dad died, my mom tried pretty much everything she could to cheer me up,” Davidson continued in his SNL monologue.
“I remember one day when I was 8 when she got me what she thought was a Disney movie, but it was actually Eddie Murphy’s crazy stand-up special.
Davidson said it was a catalytic moment that allowed him to process his grief.
“I don’t get it. I really don’t and I never will, but sometimes comedy really is the only way forward,” he said.
Add: “My heart goes out to everyone whose lives were destroyed this week.” But tonight I’m going to do what I’ve always done in the face of tragedy and that’s try to be funny. Remember I said try it.’
Injured children wait for medical treatment after being taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza
Troops remove the bodies of victims killed in an attack by Hamas terrorists in Kfar Aza on Tuesday
A fireball erupts during an Israeli bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday
“Merkava” battle tanks gather today at a staging area at an undisclosed location along the Gaza border
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the largest aircraft carrier in the world. It now lies off the coast of Israel
This comes at a time when an Israeli ground attack on Gaza is expected following this week’s deadly Hamas terror attacks. On Saturday evening, The New York Times reported that the invasion had been delayed by bad weather and that it would likely take place in the coming days as the IDF prepares for a conflict lasting up to 18 months.
Since the Hamas invasion, the bloodiest day in Israel’s 75-year history, the Israeli military says it has mobilized 360,000 reservists.
On Saturday, two US sources told CNN that a second strike group of aircraft carriers is moving to the region after the first – led by the USS Gerald R. Ford – arrived off the coast of Israel earlier this week.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group will join the Ford after it changed its plans to turn to U.S. European Command and deploy to the Middle East instead, leaving its base in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday.
The US warships are not intended to join the fighting in Gaza or Israeli operations, Pentagon officials emphasize.
But the presence of two of the Navy’s most powerful ships is intended to send a deterrent message to Iran and its proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
An image taken from Sderot shows clouds of smoke rising over buildings during an Israeli attack on the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, as Israel bombs Gaza in preparation for a land invasion
Israel has ordered the evacuation of 1.1 million people in the northern Gaza Strip to move south.
Martin Griffiths, the U.N. humanitarian chief, said he feared “the worst is yet to come” and warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “rapidly becoming untenable.”
The statement added that “the past week has been a test for humanity and humanity is failing.”
The World Health Organization called Israel’s evacuation order for hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip “a death sentence for the sick and injured.”
Daniel Hagari, Israel’s military spokesman, said the country should expect “challenging weeks” as the military operation escalates.
The goal, he said, was “the defeat of Hamas and the elimination of its leaders.”