\u201cWe\u2019re giving a lot of money, a lot of food, a lot of everything,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we weren\u2019t there, I think people would have starved, frankly. They would have starved, and it\u2019s not like they\u2019re eating well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t People carry food parcels and bags in the al-Mawasi camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, that were picked up from the Rafah corridor on July 27, 2025. (AFP)<\/p>\n The actual figure given to the GHF by the US is $30 million, and the US 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.<\/p>\n REPORTER: Should Israel be doing more to allow food in Gaza?<\/p>\n TRUMP: Say it?<\/p>\n REPORTER: Should Israel be doing more to allow food in Gaza?<\/p>\n TRUMP: What is she saying?<\/p>\n SOMEONE ELSE: Should Israel be doing more to allow food in Gaza?<\/p>\n TRUMP: You really at least want to have\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/BJhUIXdxzM<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Netanyahu hits back against starvation claims<\/p>\n Commenting the slew of changes that he approved to the aid system in Gaza on Saturday night, amid widespread criticism over mounting reports of starvation-related deaths, Netanyahu, like Trump, insisted that if not for him, Gazans would have starved long ago.\n<\/p>\n Speaking at a Christian conference in Jerusalem hosted by Trump adviser and prominent Evangelical pastor Paula White, Netanyahu told a listening audience that \u201cthere is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n He claimed that Israel had \u201cenabled the amount required by international law\u201d to enter the Strip, which he said amounted to some 1.9 million tons of aid since the start of the war in October 2023.<\/p>\n Israel \u201cenabled humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war\u2026Otherwise, there would be no Gazans,\u201d he asserted, blaming Hamas for intercepting supplies and then \u201caccusing Israel of not supplying it.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a Christian conference in Jerusalem, on April 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n In an effort to explain the sudden changes to Israel\u2019s aid policies, Netanyahu said the decision to implement 10-hour humanitarian pauses in densely populated parts of the Strip came after some \u201cwell-intended\u201d agencies, as well as the United Nations, made \u201cexcuses\u201d not to deliver aid behind combat zones, despite there being \u201csafe corridors.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo we\u2019ve just announced that formally,\u201d he said, claiming that there have always been safe routes for UN convoys to travel on.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are safe corridors, and the UN has no excuses left. No excuses left. Stop lying\u2026 Stop accusing Israel deliberately of this egregious falsehood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n During the conference, Netanyahu thanked evangelical Zionists for standing with Israel against what he said were false allegations surrounding the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have an eighth front \u2014 the battle for truth. And I can think of no one who can carry this battle alongside with us\u2026 better than [our] many Christian friends.\u201d<\/p>\n He warned that the Israeli-Christian alliance was \u201cbeing challenged today by\u2026 Islamist fundamentalism that seeks to subjugate all Muslims they view as infidels, eradicate the American \u2014 and obviously the Israeli \u2014 presence in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara attend a Christian conference in Jerusalem, on April 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n Earlier on Sunday, the premier similarly dismissed the UN\u2019s claims about Gaza aid deliveries during a visit to the Ramon Air Force Base in the Negev Desert.<\/p>\n In what appeared to be an appeal to his far-right coalition allies and supporters, who believe that allowing aid to enter the Strip hindered the war effort, Netanyahu said that even while Israel would \u201ccontinue to fight\u2026 until complete victory,\u201d it would also have to continue to allow supplies into Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will eliminate Hamas,\u201d the premier said, adding that \u201cin any path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies,\u201d and claiming that \u201cwe have done this until now.\u201d<\/p>\n Contrary to Netanyahu\u2019s claim, however, Israel has not always allowed supplies, minimal or otherwise, to enter the war-torn Gaza Strip, as it implemented a total blockade on the territory and barred all aid from entering between March and May of this year.<\/p>\n Even once aid resumed, it was in markedly lower quantities, with much of it being disturbed by the controversial US- and Israel-backed GHF, in a manner that has drawn international backlash over reports of hundreds of aid-seekers being shot dead in near-daily incidents.<\/p>\n Only last week, amid accusations that Israel was starving Gazans, did Netanyahu drastically increase the amount and channels of aid entering Gaza.<\/p>\n \t Israeli Air Force staff prepare boxes of humanitarian aid ahead of an airdrop in the Gaza Strip, July 26, 2025. (IDF)<\/p>\n IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin similarly insisted that Israel had not subjugated the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip to starvation, and maintained that Israel cares more about Gazan civilians than Hamas does.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are continuing to lead a process of bringing humanitarian aid, while continuing the fighting. Israel is the one that initiated the [GHF] aid distribution sites\u2026 This is to prevent famine in Gaza,\u201d Defrin said in a press conference, listing the ways in which Israel was allowing aid to enter and be transported across the Strip.<\/p>\n Defrin repeated the claim that Hamas is stealing aid from civilians, hiding it in tunnels, and at the same time carrying out a \u201cfalse campaign on starvation in the Gaza Strip.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe photos emerging from Gaza are difficult, and they are part of this false campaign,\u201d he said, reiterating that there is \u201cno [deliberate] starvation in the Gaza Strip,\u201d and that Israel was \u201coperating according to international law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe care about the nutrition of the residents of Gaza more than Hamas does,\u201d he declared. \u201cHamas works intentionally to worsen the condition of the population. Hamas tries with all its might to sabotage the [GHF] aid distribution sites and the arrival of the aid to the Strip.\u201d<\/p>\n Future uncertain after ceasefire talks stall<\/p>\n While speaking to reporters in Scotland on Sunday, Trump turned to the decision to pull negotiators from Qatar amid anger at Hamas\u2019s response to the ceasefire and hostage deal that had been offered it.<\/p>\n He said that \u201cIsrael will have to make a decision\u201d regarding the war and the remaining 50 hostages still held by Gaza\u2019s terror groups.<\/p>\n \u201cI know what I would do, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s appropriate to say it,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n He claimed that he predicted the breakdown in talks, asserting Hamas would not want to release the final hostages because they were its last bargaining chips.<\/p>\n \t US President Donald Trump meets European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin)<\/p>\n Taking a more blunt approach than Trump on Sunday was leading Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who suggested in an interview with NBC News that Israel would not be able to negotiate a satisfactory end to the war in Gaza, and would have no choice but to take control of the Strip.<\/p>\n Graham is a longtime supporter of Israel who frequently visits the country and is a friend of Netanyahu.<\/p>\n \u201cI think President Trump has come to believe, and I certainly have come to believe, there\u2019s no way you\u2019re going to negotiate an end of this war with Hamas,\u201d said the South Carolina senator, insinuating that the president had soured on the prospect of a deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re going to do in Gaza what we did in Tokyo and Berlin \u2014 take the place by force and start over again, presenting a better future for the Palestinians, hopefully having the Arabs take over the West Bank and Gaza,\u201d he said, referring to the US-led allied occupation of the Japanese and German capitals after World War Two.<\/p>\n Growing pressure to recognize Palestinian state<\/p>\n Even as Israel weighs its next steps in the Gaza Strip, pressure has been growing among its European allies to follow France\u2019s lead and unilaterally recognize a Palestinian State.<\/p>\n French President Emmanuel Macron announced last Thursday that his country would formally recognize a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September.<\/p>\n The decision made Paris the most powerful European nation to advance such a move, after Norway, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia all announced their recognition in the months following the outbreak of the Gaza war.<\/p>\n Among those under pressure to follow Macron\u2019s lead was British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was planning to recall his cabinet from their summer break to discuss the situation in Gaza, the Financial Times reported Sunday.<\/p>\n Starmer\u2019s office did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the report.<\/p>\n The UK parliament and cabinet are currently in a summer recess until September 1.<\/p>\n The recall, planned for next week, was reportedly decided on after Starmer said Friday the British government would recognize a Palestinian state only as part of a negotiated peace deal, disappointing many in his Labour Party who want him to follow France in taking swifter action.<\/p>\n \t Palestinian walk carrying sacks of flour near Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on July 27, 2025, after trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered into northern Gaza. (BASHAR TALEB \/ AFP)<\/p>\n More than 220 members of parliament in the UK, representing about a third of the House of Commons and mostly Labour members, wrote to Starmer on Friday, urging him to reconsider the issue.<\/p>\n Also under the spotlight is German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after Berlin declined to join its European allies earlier this month in signing a letter condemning Israel\u2019s restrictions on Gaza aid.<\/p>\n Merz said Sunday that he had spoken to Netanyahu by phone, and had urged him to do \u201ceverything in his power to bring about an immediate ceasefire\u2026 and allow urgently needed humanitarian aid to reach the starving civilian population in Gaza without delay.\u201d<\/p>\n We will closely monitor developments and, in coordination with France, the UK, other European partners, the United States, and Arab states, decide in the coming days how we can contribute to improving the situation. 2\/2<\/p>\n \u2014 Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) July 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe will closely monitor developments and, in coordination with France, the UK, other European partners, the United States, and Arab states, decide in the coming days how we can contribute to improving the situation,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AFP__20250727__67Y43NR__v1__HighRes__PalestinianIsraelConflictAid-640x400.jpg\")
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