SYDNEY: Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke briefly walked off stage during an Australian concert after a verbal stoush with a pro-Palestinian heckler.

Yorke was performing a solo show Wednesday night in Melbourne when a concert goer began chiding him about the mounting death toll in Gaza.

"How many dead children will it take for you to condemn the genocide in Gaza," the heckler said.

In a frosty reply, Yorke accused the man of ruining the gig for other fans and invited him to "hop up" on the stage.

"Don't stand there like a coward, come here and say it. You want to piss on every body's night," Yorke said.

Yorke briefly walked off stage as the crowd booed the heckler, although returned minutes later to play his final song – Radiohead's 1997 hit "Karma Police."

Radiohead defied pro-Palestinian activists in 2017 to play a gig in Tel Aviv.

"Playing in a country isn't the same as endorsing its government," Yorke wrote on Twitter at the time.

"We've played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments, some more liberal than others. As we have in America.

"We don't endorse Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America." 

 - AFP