Comedian Pete Davidson opened Saturday Night Live with a moving monologue about the violence seen in Israel and Gaza and how the bloodshed brought back the pain of losing his firefighter father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“This week we’ve seen horrific images and stories from Israel and Gaza and I know what you’re thinking ‘who better to comment on that than Pete Davidson:’” he told the audience on Saturday.
‘Well, in many ways I’m a good person to talk about it because when I was 7 years old, my father was killed in a terrorist attack. So I know something about what it’s like’ he explained.
“I’ve seen so many terrible pictures this week of children suffering, Israeli children and Palestinian children, and it took me back to a very horrible, horrible place, and nobody in this world deserves to suffer like that, especially children .’
This comes as more than 1,300 people were killed in Israel after Hamas launched a series of terror attacks, and more than 2,200 people were killed in Israel’s retaliatory bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Comedian Pete Davidson opened Saturday Night Live with a moving monologue about the violence seen in Israel and Gaza.
Davidson said the bloodshed brought back the pain of losing his firefighter father in the 9/11 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.
The star opened up about his father’s death earlier in the news.
“One night I turned on the TV and I just saw my dad on the TV,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’” And they were like, it’s all the firemen who are, like, dead,’ 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 she got me what she thought was a Disney movie but it was actually the Eddie Murphy stand-up special delirious.
Davidson said it was a catalyst moment that allowed him to begin processing his grief.
“I don’t understand it. I really don’t, and I never will, but sometimes comedy really is the only way forward’ he said.
Adding ‘My heart goes out to everyone whose lives have been 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.’
Injured children wait for medical treatment after being brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza
Troops remove the bodies of victims killed during an attack by Hamas terrorists in Kfar Aza on Tuesday
A fireball erupts during Israeli bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday
‘Merkava’ tanks gather today at a gathering point at an undisclosed location along the border with Gaza
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the world’s largest aircraft carrier. It is now on the coast of Israel
It comes as a ground attack on Gaza from Israel is expected after this week’s deadly terror attacks by Hamas. On Saturday night, the New York Times reported that the invasion had been delayed by bad weather and was likely to happen in the coming days, with the IDF preparing for up to 18 months of conflict.
Since the Hamas invasion, the bloodiest single day in Israel’s 75-year history, the Israeli army says it has mobilized 360,000 reservists.
On Saturday, two US sources told CNN that a second carrier strike group was 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 changing its plans to move to the US European Command and deploying to the Middle East instead, leaving its base in Norfolk, Va. on Friday .
The US warships are not intended to join the fighting in Gaza or participate in Israel’s operations, Pentagon officials emphasize.
But the presence of two of the navy’s most powerful ships is designed to send a message of deterrence to Iran and Iranian proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A photo taken from Sderot shows plumes of smoke rising above buildings during an Israeli attack on the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, as Israel storms Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion
Israel ordered the evacuation of 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to move south.
Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief, said he feared ‘the worst is yet to come’ and warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was ‘fast becoming untenable’.
The statement added that ‘this past week has been a test for humanity, and humanity is failing.’
The World Health Organization has called Israel’s evacuation orders to hospitals in northern Gaza “a death sentence for the sick and injured.”
Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told the country to expect “challenging weeks” ahead as the military operation escalates.
The goal, he said, was “the defeat of Hamas and the elimination of its leaders.”
Pete Davidson gives moving SNL opening monologue about Israel-Gaza violence and says bloodshed brought back pain of losing his firefighter dad in 9/11 terrorist attack
