EDINBURGH, Scotland — President Donald Trump on Monday said he will work with European allies to “set up food centers” in Gaza, disagreeing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assessment that there is “no starvation” in the war-torn strip.
“Based on television, … those children look very hungry,” Trump said. “But we’re giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up.”
Trump later added: “Some of those kids are — that’s real starvation stuff.”
The president’s remarks, which came during a bilateral meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump’s golf resort in Turnberry, were far more critical of the Netanyahu strategy than he was just a few days ago when he left for his trip to Scotland. They also come as Israel faces growing condemnation from some of the U.S.’s closest allies.
Even as Trump again dismissed the idea of recognizing Palestine as a state, he seemed unbothered by European allies doing so.
More than 200 members of the British parliament signed a letter Friday calling for the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state. Starmer, last week, said “the suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible,” and called statehood “the inalienable right of the Palestinian people.” French President Emmanuel Macron last week announced that France would recognize the state of Palestine.
The United Kingdom, France and Germany also issued a joint statement Friday calling for an end to the war and for Israel to “lift restrictions on the flow of aid.”
Trump, on Monday, repeated his concern that some of the food aid was stolen by Hamas, though multiple media outlets have debunked or cast doubt on that claim.
On Saturday, as criticism intensified and images of dead and malnourished children were shared around the world, Israel Defense Forces announced aid airdrops would begin Saturday evening and that humanitarian corridors for United Nations convoys would be opened. But Israel has continued to contend that there is “no starvation” and that such claims were being propagated by Hamas.
Trump, however, appeared unnerved by the images he’d seen.
“I see it, and you can’t fake that,” Trump said. “So, we’re going to be even more involved.”
Starmer has not put a timeline on when the U.K. would recognize a state of Palestine, but he told Trump on Monday that what’s happening in Gaza is an “absolute catastrophe.”
“And I think people in Britain are revolted at what they’re seeing on their screens,” Starmer said. “So we’ve got to get to that ceasefire. And thank you, Mr. President, for leading on that, and also to just get more and more aid in.”
Trump, who told reporters Sunday that he spoke with Netanyahu over the weekend, said he told the Israeli leader that his approach may have to change and criticized Hamas for not releasing the remaining hostages.
“I told Israel, I told Bibi, that you have to now maybe do it a different way,” Trump said.
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