President Donald Trump declined to weigh in on the issue of Palestinian statehood Monday.
“Well, I’m not going to take a position,” Trump said when a reporter ask him if he agrees with a recent statement from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling for recognition of a Palestinian state.
“I’m looking forward to getting people fed right now. That’s the number one decision,” Trump said while standing next to Starmer outside the Trump Turnberry golf club in Turnberry, Scotland during the President’s four-day trip across the Atlantic.
“You have a lot of starving people,” Trump continued while a bagpiper could be heard playing in the background.
Starmer issued a statement Friday arguing “[r]ecognition of a Palestinian state has to be” part of discussions over a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. “I am unequivocal about that,” Starmer continued. “But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced France will recognize Palestine as a state.
Trump has repeatedly been asked about the war between Hamas and Israel and concerns over famine in Gaza during his trip to Scotland, which began Friday.
The president says there is “real starvation” in Gaza and has pledged the U.S. will be “helping with the food” and will “set up food centers.”
Over the weekend, former President Barack Obama sounded the alarm over the food situation in Gaza.
“Aid must be permitted to reach people in Gaza,” Obama said. “There is no justification for keeping food and water away from civilian families.”
Some top Israeli officials, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, deny a famine is taking place in Gaza.
“There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza, and I assure you that we have a commitment to achieve our war goals,” Netanyahu said on X Monday.
“We will continue to fight till we achieve the release of our hostages and the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities. They shall be there no more,” Netanyahu pledged.
The U.N. World Health Organization reports there have been 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza in July, 24 of whom are reported to be children under the age of five.
Israel and the United Nations have continued to blame one another for humanitarian aid not reaching the people of Gaza.
Israeli officials say truckloads of aid are waiting just inside Gaza for the U.N. and aid organizations to distribute the supplies.
“There is no justification for the U.N.’s catastrophic failure to deliver the aid that’s sitting in Gaza,” Eylon Levy, a former Israeli government spokesman, told The Daily Signal Monday.
Levy, who visited the location of the sitting aid on Sunday, says he “saw the contents of 600 trucks rotting in the sun. The U.N. needs to do its job and stop making excuses.”
U.N. officials have said Israel has not given U.N. staff the approval needed to access and distribute the aid.
“We’re not going to leave aid on pallets if we can. But to get to it, our drivers face bureaucratic constraints, they face massive security constraints,” Tom Fletcher, U.N. aid chief, told BBC Radio 4 Today.
Fletcher says the U.N. is working to increase aid into Gaza after Israel announced it will begin daily pauses in the fighting to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The pauses in military operations, which began Sunday, are set to take place in several areas of Gaza from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“We welcome Israel’s decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine, and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for U.N. humanitarian convoys,” Fletcher said in a statement Sunday. “Some movement restrictions appear to have been eased today, with initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads were collected.”
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