US President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected the characterization of Israel’s campaign against the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip as a “genocide,” emphasizing that the war started when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Asked about the genocide accusation, Trump said: “I don’t think it’s that. They’re in a war.”
Israel has strongly rejected allegations of war crimes, insisting it does not target civilians and pointing to efforts to evacuate civilians from harm’s way and facilitate the entry of aid throughout the 22-month campaign. International groups accuse Israel of failing to let in sufficient aid to prevent hunger and of showing disregard for civilian casualties.
“Some horrible things happened on October 7,” Trump said, as he prepared to board Air Force One in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “It was a horrible, horrible thing. One of the worst I’ve ever seen.”
The invasion of southern Israel by thousands of Hamas-led terrorists in 2023 saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage. Fifty hostages are still held in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Asked for an update on Gaza more broadly, Trump reiterated that the US was working to feed Palestinians in the Strip.
“We want the people fed. We’re the only country that’s really doing that. We’re putting up money to get the people fed. And Steve Witkoff is doing a great job.”
Trump said Washington was “giving some pretty big contributions, basically to purchase food, so that people can be fed.
“We don’t want people going hungry, and we don’t want people to starve. And there’s some bad things happening,” Trump said, without elaborating.
Numerous countries have mobilized in recent weeks to surge food aid into Gaza, amid reports of widespread hunger endangering the population.
Israel denies reports of starvation in the Strip. It has accused Hamas of impeding and hijacking aid deliveries.
Last month, in response to the international outcry, Israel vowed to increase the flow of aid, institute 10-hour “humanitarian pauses” in fighting in three Gaza population centers and facilitate international airdrops of food.
Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Mideast, and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited Gaza on Friday amid growing international concern and criticism regarding the current US- and Israel-backed aid distribution system.
According to Witkoff, “The purpose of the visit was to give US President Donald Trump a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”
In recent days, Trump has repeatedly promised a plan to feed people in Gaza, but has declined to provide details.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least six people died of starvation over the weekend, making a total of 175 malnutrition-related deaths, including 93 children, since the war began. The World Health Organization reported 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza in July alone, including 25 children, of whom all but one were under the age of 5.
Israel blocked the entry of all aid into the Strip between March and May of this year as a ceasefire with Hamas collapsed, arguing that enough food had entered the Strip for months during the truce.
The US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched its operations in late May, sidelining the longstanding UN-led humanitarian system as Israel was beginning to ease the more than two-month aid blockade. Israel said the previous system allowed Hamas to commandeer aid, strengthening its grip on Gaza’s population.
The GHF is intended to facilitate aid distribution directly to Gazan civilians, without contributing to Hamas’s coffers. But the UN and other aid groups have rejected the GHF, accusing it of violating humanitarian principles of neutrality and of putting aid seekers in harm’s way.
According to the United Nations, more than 1,300 Palestinian aid seekers have been killed in Gaza since late May, including over 800 near sites run by the GHF, whose facilities are protected by American contractors, with IDF troops nearby.
The IDF has in the past said troops have fired toward crowds of Palestinians approaching their positions near aid sites, but it claims the casualty figures are exaggerated, without providing its own.