Trump: Israel Will ‘Have to Make Decision’ on Gaza War

U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in on the humanitarian crisis and reports of starvation-related deaths in the Gaza Strip as Israel took steps to increase the flow of aid into the enclave, even while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied Jerusalem had any part in widespread shortages there.

At the same time, Trump and other leaders acknowledged that they did not know what lay in store for the devastated Palestinian enclave, after the apparent collapse of ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations, when Israel and the U.S. pulled their negotiating teams from Doha, and accused Hamas of not being serious about wanting a truce deal.

Trump, who was on a four-day visit to Scotland, was asked by a reporter about the images that have been coming out of Gaza of starving children, which he said he thought were “terrible.”

But he promptly pivoted to say, “They’re stealing the food,” without specifying who he was talking about, although he was likely alluding to the Hamas terror group, which Israel has regularly accused of stealing aid for its own benefit.

The U.S. president lamented that the U.S. had supposedly donated $60 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation while “no other country gave anything.”

“It makes you feel a little bad when you do that and, you know, you have other countries not giving anything,” he said, sitting alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “Nobody gave but us. And nobody said, Gee, thank you very much. And it would be nice to have at least a thank you.”

“We’re giving a lot of money, a lot of food, a lot of everything,” he said. “If we weren’t there, I think people would have starved, frankly. They would have starved, and it’s not like they’re eating well.”

The actual figure given to the controversial GHF by the U.S. is $30 million, and the U.S. is also far from the only country to donate humanitarian aid. It is not even the largest donor, as the United Arab Emirates has given a larger percentage of assistance.

Netanyahu Hits Back Against Starvation Claims

Amid the slew of changes that he approved to the aid system in Gaza amid widespread criticism over the reports of starvation-related deaths, Netanyahu, like Trump, insisted that if not for him, Gazans would have starved long ago.

Speaking at a Christian conference in Jerusalem hosted by Trump adviser and prominent Evangelical pastor Paula White, Netanyahu told a listening audience that “there is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”

He claimed that Israel had “enabled the amount required by international law” to enter the Strip, which he said equated to some 1.9 million tons of aid since the start of the war in October 2023.

Israel “enabled humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war…Otherwise, there would be no Gazans,” he asserted, blaming Hamas for intercepting supplies and then “accusing Israel of not supplying it.”

In an effort to explain away the sudden changes to Israel’s aid policies, Netanyahu said the decision to implement 10-hour humanitarian pauses in densely populated parts of the Strip came after some “well-intended” agencies, as well as the United Nations, made “excuses” not to deliver aid behind combat zones, despite there having been “safe corridors.”

“So we’ve just announced that formally,” he said, claiming that there have always been safe routes for U.N. convoys to travel on.

“Here are safe corridors, and the U.N. has no excuses left. No excuses left. Stop lying… Stop accusing Israel deliberately of this egregious falsehood,” he said.

During the same conference, Netanyahu thanked evangelical zionists for standing with Israel against what he said were false allegations surrounding the war in Gaza.

“We have an eighth front — the battle for truth. And I can think of no one who can carry this battle alongside with us… better than [our] many Christian friends.”

He warned that the Israeli-Christian alliance was “being challenged today by… Islamist fundamentalism that seeks to subjugate all Muslims they view as infidels, eradicate the American — and obviously the Israeli — presence in the Middle East.”

Earlier, the premier had similarly dismissed the U.N.’s claims about Gaza aid deliveries during a visit to the Ramon Air Force Base in the Negev Desert.

In what appeared to be an appeal to his far-right coalition allies and supporters, who believe that allowing aid to enter the Strip hinders Israel’s progress, Netanyahu pledged that even while Israel would “continue to fight, we will continue to act until we achieve all of our war goals — until complete victory,” it would have to continue allowing supplies into Gaza no matter where the war goes from here.

“We will eliminate Hamas,” the premier said, adding that Israel is “making progress in fighting and negotiating.”

But “in any path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies,” he continued, claiming that “we have done this until now.”