Trump warns vs Gaza ‘real starvation’

United States President Donald Trump warned Monday that the people of Gaza are facing “real starvation,” as aid agencies sought to take advantage of an Israeli “tactical pause” of some military operations to rush in food aid.

Speaking in Scotland, Trump contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has dismissed famine fears as Hamas propaganda.

Trump said the United States and its partners would help set up food centers to feed the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza facing what UN aid agencies have warned is a deadly wave of starvation and malnutrition.

“We’re going to be getting some good strong food, we can save a lot of people. I mean, some of those kids — that’s real starvation stuff,” he said at a news conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “We have to get the kids fed.”

Trump’s remarks came after Netanyahu declared on Sunday that “there is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza.”

The United States already backs food centers under the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but the GHF’s operations have come under repeated criticism, with the UN saying hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops while trying to access its sites.

The Foundation has also been accused by aid groups of facilitating Israel’s military goals.

Trump said the UK and European Union would back new food centers that would be easier to access — “where the people can walk in, and no boundaries.”

The war in Gaza has dragged on for almost 22 months, creating a dire humanitarian crisis exacerbated by an Israeli blockade on supplies imposed from March to late May.