President Donald Trump disagreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s claim that there is no starvation in Gaza during a meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday.
Trump said the children there “look very hungry” after Netanyahu said there was no starvation in Gaza on Sunday. The president’s disagreement with Netanyahu comes as political pressure on Israel to deliver aid to Gaza increases.
“Based on television, I would say not particularly,” Trump said after being asked whether he agrees with Netanyahu that there is no starvation in Gaza, “because those children look very hungry.”
“But we’re giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up,” Trump added.
Netanyahu slammed suggestions that his country is allowing Palestinians in Gaza to starve during Israel’s conflict with Hamas at an event in Jerusalem.
“Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza,” he said. “What a bald-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”
He hinted that Israel filled a need for humanitarian aid in Gaza and that “otherwise, there would be no Gaza,” before blaming Hamas for intercepting the aid.
Israeli PM Netanyahu denied that Gazans are starving last night at an event in Jerusalem. Comes as GOP and Dems are shifting towards granting more aid.
“What a bold-faced lie,” he said. “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.” pic.twitter.com/KFNXx2tOhd
— Ross O’Keefe (@RossOKeefe2) July 28, 2025
Trump acknowledged earlier in his meeting with Starmer that people are starving in Gaza after he was asked about possibly acknowledging a Palestinian state.
“I’m looking for getting people fed. Right now, to me, that’s the No. 1 position because you have a lot of starving people,” he said.
The president met with Starmer in Scotland to discuss trade and Gaza.
As for the war in Gaza, Israel’s relentless bombing left thousands homeless in an area enveloped in poverty long before the most recent war. The Jewish state has been accused of killing more than 50,000 civilians in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks started the war, though numbers are not independently verifiable. The Israel Defense Forces has also confirmed reports of soldiers shooting at Palestinians who are getting aid.
Despite Netanyahu’s dismissal of the reports of starvation, Israel has bowed to external pressure and implemented “tactical pauses” in the conflict to allow aid to enter the country.
Images from Gaza showed aid dropping into the country on Sunday.
Political pressure from the United States, Israel’s chief ally and top military supplier, has increased. Senate Democrats demanded that funds to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli and American-funded Gaza aid group, be stopped.
“We urge you to immediately cease all U.S. funding for GHF and resume support for the existing UN-led aid coordination mechanisms with enhanced oversight to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need,” a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio says.
The aid group has come under fire for the militarization of its aid distribution. Aid centers have been called “death traps” for Palestinians.
House Democratic leadership has also slammed Israel for its allegedly insufficient aid.
“The starvation and death of Palestinian children and civilians in an ongoing war zone is unacceptable,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a statement late Friday.
The pressure to get aid into Gaza is also beginning to come from Republicans, who have ardently supported Israel throughout the war.
“The Israelis have a concern about the food being misappropriated to Hamas fighters. I have that concern, but I’d like to get some aid in,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told NOTUS last week. “I don’t want the food to sit there and rot.”
With Trump’s inclusion in the criticism of aid to Gaza, the pressure could intensify on Israel.