US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he did not know whether he agreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assessment yesterday that there was no famine in Gaza.
"Based on what we've seen on television, I would say absolutely not, because those children look very hungry, and there are a lot of hungry people in Gaza," Trump said, standing alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, at the Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, repeatedly emphasizing the United States' contribution to aid to Gaza.
"We gave $60 million, and nobody thanked us. Other countries should step up," Trump said, adding that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had promised him that European countries would also contribute.
Trump said he was "trying to feed people now."
It is noteworthy that the total amount provided by the United States so far, according to what was announced by the US State Department.
Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the allegations of Hamas's "seizure" of aid, saying, "We gave a lot of money to Gaza for food and everything else. Hamas stole a lot of that money from us, and they stole a lot of food."
For their part, Starmer and Trump said they would focus on Gaza during their meeting. Trump confirmed that he would not take a position on Palestinian statehood, but that he would not mind Starmer taking one.
It's worth noting that while both the United States and Israel have repeatedly claimed that Hamas has stolen massive amounts of aid supplies entering Gaza, neither government has provided any evidence to support this claim, according to reports from The New York Times and Reuters.
Reuters reported on Friday that an internal US government analysis found no evidence of Hamas systematically stealing US-funded aid supplies entering Gaza. The analysis was conducted by an office within the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and completed at the end of last June.
The analysis examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies and found "no reports alleging that Hamas" benefited from the aid. The report also quoted a source familiar with US intelligence assessments as saying he was unaware of any US intelligence reports detailing Hamas's diversion of aid, and that Washington relied on Israeli reports.
A New York Times report published on Saturday (July 26) quoted senior Israeli military officials and other Israelis involved in the case as saying that the Israeli military had never found evidence that Hamas systematically stole UN aid. The Israeli military officials added that the UN aid system was largely effective in providing food to the desperate and starving population of Gaza.
Israel has exploited these false claims to undermine the UN food system in Gaza, establishing the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has set up aid distribution sites run by US security contractors that have become death traps for desperate Palestinians seeking food. Since the GHF began operating in late May, more than 1,100 Palestinian aid seekers have been killed, most of them near its sites.
While Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid, it has armed an ISIS-linked gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a criminal who admitted in an interview with The Washington Post last year that his group was looting aid trucks.
Israel also used allegations of Hamas diverting aid to justify the comprehensive blockade it imposed on Gaza in March, which violated the ceasefire agreement reached in January. The blockade was only slightly eased when the Global Humanitarian Relief Fund sites were established, and a limited number of aid trucks were allowed into Gaza in May.
As Palestinians inside Gaza die of starvation daily, international pressure is mounting on Israel to end the blockade and establish a ceasefire in Gaza. However, the United States continues to strongly support Israel despite the mass starvation.
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Trump disagrees with Netanyahu on Gaza famine, accusing Hamas of stealing aid without evidence