Australian Kmart's Israel-Palestine fail goes global as American comedian John Oliver roasts the store: 'How were they supposed to know Hamas was going to launch a terrorist attack in 'Ham-mas season?'

Kmart's Hamas blunder - that saw Christmas ham bags emblazoned with the words 'Merry Ham-mas' pulled from shelves - has officially gone global after comedian John Oliver roasted the Australian retailer. 

The offending bags were removed from stores and the Kmart website after the retailer's parent company, Wesfarmers, received a complaint from the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) last Wednesday. 

British-American comedian John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight, shared a clip of Channel Nine TV host Brooke Boney announcing Kmart's decision to ditch the bags.

'Yeah, that is too similar,' Oliver quipped. 

'It'd be like naming your child John Blaine-gacy, it's too close for comfort.

'But spare a thought for Australian Kmart there, how were they supposed to know that Hamas was going to launch a terrorist attack so close to the 'ham-mas' season?'

The host continued: 'It feels like Ham-mas starts a little earlier every year, doesn't it? One day it's ham-oween, the next, your neighbour's hanging up ham-mas lights'.

'Things are, understandably, very tense right now, and it seems like everyone is finding themselves making mistakes, and I do mean everyone.'

In a statement, Kmart confirmed the bags had been pulled from shelves.

'We got it wrong on this occasion, and we apologise unreservedly,' it said. 

'When designing this product we clearly didn't think through all the implications and the product has been removed from sale.'

It comes after the AJA wrote on Twitter last week that it wished to help Kmart avoid embarrassment by pointing out the obvious mistake. 

'Yes, it's real!! Although this is potentially funny (the AJA committee has tossed around some non-PC jokes) it's really not a good look,' it wrote. 

'We suspect some product manager may cause the company some embarrassment.

'So we've politely written to Wesfarmers … suggesting the product be pulled.'

Within an hour of their initial post, the group said that it had heard back from Kmart's senior management. 

By 5pm that day, Kmart had pulled the bag from its storefront, but not before it had spread across the internet, amassing waves of ridicule. 

Many customers said that they assumed photos of the bag were a parody before they realised that it was real. 

One person said that the short-lived Christmas ham bag was now fated to become a collectors item thanks to its short life on sale. 

Another pointed out that Hamas itself would not be a fan of the item 'considering the majority a) wouldn't celebrate Christmas and b) likely don't eat pork'.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the Palestinian terror group, which controls the Gaza Strip, launched a series of terror attacks on October 7 - killing more than 1,400 people and taking about 240 more hostage.