GMB viewers switch off over 'unwatchable' Susanna Reid segment

Good Morning Britain fans were furious enough to "switch off" when hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley interviewed UNICEF spokesperson James Elder on the ITV breakfast show. Elder was on the programme to talk about the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict, which has led to devastating scenes on both sides.

The six-minute interview saw Reid ask: "Obviously there are two very powerful voices in this conflict, that of Hamas and that of the Israeli government. Just to say that the Times of Israel reported last month [that] internal Hamas documents show the group has been systematically exploiting the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza in order to fund its terror activities, that was according to the Israeli Defence Forces.

"I just put that as perhaps a sort of explanation to counter this idea that the aid system worked previously, that the new system doesn't work. Whether the new system works or not, we've seen dreadful scenes, I suppose the IDF would say, 'If you've got an aid system where Hamas are exploiting that aid for their own devices, that also failed the civilians and the children of Gaza?'"

Some fans weren't happy with the line of questioning as Elder tried his best to respond, arguing: "Unfortunately Susanna, there's two parts - one is that there's a million children, and Israel will say there's less than 20,000 people in Hamas, so we talk about aid and we talk about what possible reason would Hamas have for hygiene kits for girls, or incubators for premature babies.

"UNICEF, we've got dozens of incubators on the other side of the border that are not allowed to go in. Preemie babies, given the stress of mums, are dying because we can't get them in.

"Water goes from the source to the recipient. We have restrictions across the entire Gaza Strip - no-one is getting the minimum level of water, so now you've got children suffering from a lack of food and now from a lack of water. This is a collision on their bodies, so we have meningitis spiking.

"Unfortunately the evidence is very clear and then there's the logic of what possible reason can you have to ban oxygen, to ban incubators, to ban all those things a family might need," he said.

Turning to X to share their thoughts, one infuriated viewer said: "Well done to #GMB for interviewing James Elder from UNICEF this morning. The interview lasted for just under six minutes. A minute of that was taken up by this one question from Susanna Reid."

Someone else posted: "It's becoming unwatchable." As another fan posted: "Why start your interview with an indefatigable humanitarian worker by interrogating him about documents he hasn't seen? Did you check the authenticity of the documents and the veracity of their contents before the interview?"

A fourth viewer echoed: "Children are dying @GMB why is it necessary to put forward an alternative explanation?" While somebody else wrote: "I don't watch GMB," and another echoed: "This is why I don't watch it!"