Widespread starvation in Gaza is corroding Donald Trump’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli leader reportedly privately demanded a phone call with Trump after the U.S. president told reporters in Scotland last week that there is “real starvation” in Gaza and that “you can’t fake that.” He added that he had seen images of children in the region who “look very hungry.”
Over the phone, Netanyahu claimed that the images of mass starvation were the invention of Hamas, a senior U.S. official, a senior Western official, and two former U.S. officials who were briefed on the call told NBC News. But Trump was not receptive to Bibi’s narrative, interrupting him and yelling that he “did not want to hear that the starvation is fake and that his aides had shown him proof that children there are starving,” NBC reported.
One former official who spoke with NBC described the world leaders’ interaction as a “direct, mostly one-way conversation about the status of humanitarian aid,” and that Trump had done “most of the talking.”
“The U.S. not only feels like the situation is dire, but they own it because of GHF,” they added, referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Fund.
A U.N.-backed international food security body reported last week that the “worst-case famine scenario” is currently occurring in Gaza, where Israeli forces have restricted local access to food, water, electricity, and medicine. The report fell short of labeling the situation a full-blown famine, though at least 197 starvation deaths have been reported thus far, local health authorities told Vatican News.
Yet despite the harrowing circumstances, help may not be on the way. Speaking with reporters Thursday, Netanyahu said that Trump had effectively given Israel a pass to take over the remainder of Gaza. Trump also noted earlier in the week that any potential military occupation would be “pretty much up to Israel.”
Israel, which was founded in the wake of the Holocaust, has been building up troops and equipment near Gaza’s border, according to commercial satellite imagery. On Friday, the state announced that it would take over Gaza City, a move that critics have warned will only result in more civilian deaths in the region.