Bono and other members of the legendary Irish rock band U2 have published a scathing criticism of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, condemning what they describe as a humanitarian crisis and a disproportionate and brutal campaign lacking political vision from the Israeli government.
The band joins a growing chorus of artists who have come out publicly against Israel’s military actions, including hundreds of Israeli artists who signed a petition last week.
U2’s post, which appears on the Irish band’s website and social media accounts with statements from all four members of the group (Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.), begins with reflections on the atrocities committed when Hamas launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023 — which Bono repeatedly calls “evil” — before condemning Israel for the humanitarian crisis created in Gaza.
“The blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory,” the band wrote in a joint statement. “We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand.”
Bono, the band’s front man and a long-time humanitarian activist, said the images of starving children on the Gaza Strip brought him back to a trip to Ethiopia he and his wife Ali made following U2’s participation in Live Aid 1985.
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“Another man-made famine,” Bono wrote.
U2 band members, from left, Adam Clayton, Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. arrive at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022, at The Kennedy Center in Washington. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP)
Bono recalled the shock he experienced when he first heard of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
At a concert in Las Vegas the night after the attack, “I just couldn’t help but express the pain everyone in the room was feeling and is still feeling for other music lovers and fans like us,” Bono said in the statement.
During that concert, Bono dedicated the band’s hit song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” to “those beautiful kids at that music festival,” and changed the song’s lyrics to “Early morning, October 7th / Sun is rising in the desert sky / Stars of David, they took your life / They could not take your pride.”
Now, however, Bono said Israel’s response has become “disproportionate,” characterizing it as an act of brutality by Netanyahu’s government.
“We know Hamas is using starvation as a weapon in the war, but now so too is Israel, and I feel revulsion for the moral failure,” Bono wrote. “Is the world not done with this far, far right thinking? We know where it ends… world war… millenarianism… As someone who has long believed in Israel’s right to exist and supported a two-state solution, I want to make clear to anyone who cares to listen to our band’s condemnation of Netanyahu’s immoral actions and join all who have called for a cessation of hostilities on both sides.”
Bono pledged to donate to the nonprofit Medical Aid For Palestinians, saying the band “stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine who truly seek a path to peace and coexistence with Israel and with their rightful and legitimate demand for statehood.”
In the post, Bono noted that he has generally tried to stay out of Middle East politics due to their complexity, although he has spoken out about the Gaza war several times in recent months.
In May, he called for Israel to be “released” from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies as he accepted an award in London.
“Hamas, release the hostages. Stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred texts,” he said at the Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting.
He has also touched on the Gaza issue in recent articles in The Observer and The Atlantic, he noted.
Extracto del speech de Bono hablando de Hamas e Israel para acabar tocando ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ en los Ivor Novello Awards 2025 con #U2 incluyendo a Larry Mullen Jr#U2 #TheIvors
Vía Miguel d’Oliveira pic.twitter.com/QlLH3rVg02
— U2Valencia (@U2Valencia) May 23, 2025
The band’s remaining members were less circumspect in their condemnations of Israel.
Guitarist The Edge, whose real name is David Howell Evans, charged that Israel’s “intentional devastation of a civilian population” will bring “generational shame” upon those responsible.
Bassist Adam Clayton described the crisis in Gaza as a form of “revenge on a civilian population, emphasizing that any move to colonize the Gaza Strip would effectively “end the possibility of lasting peace.”
Finally, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. acknowledged the “harrowing” nature of the October 7 Hamas attack, but drew a clear line at the “indiscriminate decimation” of homes and hospitals, and said that “starving innocent civilians as a weapon of war is inhumane and criminal.”
“Where is the outrage?” Mullen Jr. asked. “Silence serves none of us.”
On Sunday, Netanyahu laid out Israel’s plans for the continuation of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying he wanted to end the war in Gaza as soon as possible but that his plan to expand the conflict and capture Gaza City was the only way to secure the release of all 50 hostages still held in the Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on August 10, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP)
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
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