BBC Information, Jerusalem
ReutersThere’s “actual hunger” in Gaza, Donald Trump has mentioned, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted there was no such factor.
Requested if he agreed with Netanyahu that it was a “bold-faced lie” to say Israel was fuelling starvation in Gaza, the US president replied: “I do not know… these kids look very hungry… that is actual hunger stuff.”
Talking throughout a gathering with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland, Trump mentioned: “No one’s achieved something nice over there. The entire place is a multitude… I instructed Israel perhaps they should do it a special approach.”
His feedback got here after the UN’s humanitarian chief mentioned “huge quantities” of meals had been wanted to stave off hunger.
Tom Fletcher instructed the BBC he welcomed Israel’s measures over the weekend to permit extra assist into Gaza within the type of airdrops, and army pauses to permit meals convoys to succeed in folks.
However he mentioned what had been delivered to this point was simply “a drop within the ocean” of what was required.
“It is the start, however the subsequent few days are actually make or break. We have to ship at a a lot, a lot better scale. We want huge quantities of assist moving into, a lot quicker,” he instructed BBC Radio 4’s At the moment programme.
Israel mentioned 120 lorry hundreds had been collected from crossings on Sunday through the first each day 10-hour “tactical pause” in army operations, and that Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 28 packages of meals.
Hours after Mr Fletcher spoke, the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry mentioned one other 14 folks had died on account of malnutrition over the previous 24 hours.
That introduced the overall variety of malnutrition-related deaths because the conflict start in October 2023 to 147, together with 88 kids, in keeping with the ministry.
Israel, which controls the entry of all provides to Gaza, has denied there’s hunger in Gaza and rejected accusations of being answerable for meals shortages.
On Sunday, the Israeli army started actions that it mentioned would enhance the “humanitarian response” in Gaza and disprove “the false declare of deliberate hunger”.
Israel introduced there can be a “native tactical pause” in three areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day, as nicely the institution of “designated safe routes” for assist convoys.
The army additionally allowed assist drops carried out by international international locations to renew, regardless of humanitarian companies warning that the strategy was ineffective and harmful.
Israeli army physique Cogat, which co-ordinates the entry of assist into Gaza, mentioned greater than 120 lorry a great deal of assist had been collected from crossings by the UN and different worldwide organisations on Sunday, and that tons of extra lorry hundreds had been awaiting assortment.
Mr Fletcher mentioned the UN had collected fewer than 100 lorry hundreds in that point, and famous that 600 to 700 hundreds had entered Gaza each day on common through the two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the beginning of this 12 months.
Requested to answer Israel’s criticism of UN companies for not gathering assist from crossings, he mentioned: “We’re not going to go away on pallets if we are able to. However to get to it our drivers face bureaucratic constraints, they face large safety constraints.”
He additionally mentioned that a lot of the UN’s meals lorries had been looted after getting into Gaza on Sunday.
“Most of these lorries… had been hit by determined particular person civilians, ravenous. The flour was taken off these lorries and its very, very harmful for our drivers.”
Mr Fletcher additionally warned that UN groups on the bottom believed the Israeli army’s pauses would solely final per week or so, which he mentioned can be “clearly inadequate when earlier than our eyes we’re seeing this twenty first Century atrocity on the bottom”.
“We want a sustained interval of supply – weeks, months – to construct up, to cease that hunger and construct up the provides once more. Finally, we’d like a ceasefire. Pauses are a great step in the correct route, however stopping the battle is the important thing.”
Netanyahu on Sunday savaged claims that Israel was intentionally ravenous civilians in Gaza, which might quantity to a conflict crime.
“What a bold-faced lie. There isn’t a coverage of hunger in Gaza, and there’s no hunger in Gaza.” he mentioned.
“We allow humanitarian assist all through the length of the conflict to enter Gaza. In any other case, there can be no Gazans. And what has interdicted the availability of humanitarian assist is one pressure, Hamas. Once more, the reversal of reality,” he added.
Netanyahu mentioned the Israeli army’s humanitarian pauses and corridors meant the UN had “no excuses left” to not acquire and distribute all the help from the crossings.
“Cease mendacity. Cease discovering excuses. Do what you must do.”
On Monday night time, Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned Israel would work with assist teams, the US and European nations to make sure “massive quantities of humanitarian assist flows” into Gaza.
An announcement mentioned the “state of affairs in Gaza is tough” however that Hamas “advantages from trying to gas the notion of a humanitarian disaster”, by releasing “unverified numbers” and “circulating photographs which might be fastidiously stage or manipulated”.
The Israeli authorities doesn’t permit worldwide information organisations, together with the BBC, into Gaza to report freely on the state of affairs there.
On Sunday, the World Well being Group warned that malnutrition was “on a harmful trajectory within the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July”.
Of the 74 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza in 2025, 63 had occurred this month, together with 24 kids below 5 and one youngster over 5, the UN company mentioned.
“Most of those folks had been declared useless on arrival at well being services or died shortly after, their our bodies exhibiting clear indicators of extreme losing,” it added.
The WHO mentioned the disaster was “completely preventable” and condemned what it referred to as the “deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale meals, well being, and humanitarian assist”.
Hamas has denied stealing assist, and on Sunday the New York Occasions cited senior Israeli army officers as saying that the army had by no means discovered proof that the armed group had systematically stolen assist from the UN. Reuters information company additionally reported final week that US authorities evaluation discovered no proof of systematic theft by Hamas of US-funded assist.
On Monday, native hospital sources mentioned Israeli assaults throughout Gaza had killed greater than 30 folks, together with assist seekers.
The Israeli army launched a marketing campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, by which about 1,200 folks had been killed and 251 others had been taken hostage.
A minimum of 59,821 folks have been killed in Gaza since then, in keeping with the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.
