The United States’s long-standing support for Israel is showing some limits as graphic images and reports of starving and emaciated children dying from hunger in Gaza have shifted public sentiment.
In recent days, President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other world leaders have called attention to the lack of food in the war-torn Hamas-controlled strip, with the president himself remarking on the graphic images in his public disagreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over whether starvation is occurring.
“There was always going to be a moment at which there would be some image that would finally make it impossible for people to stay silent, as they have for so long, and that it changes public opinion, and that has an impact on these politicians,” said Israeli-born genocide scholar Omer Bartov.
“I personally wish that American TV showed more images so President Trump would see more of them, because he obviously watches TV, and would come to that conclusion sooner,” Bartov said. “It’s only now that, finally, the scenes are so horrific that you can’t quite avoid it. But will it bring about a change? I’m a little skeptical.”
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Netanyahu, who is under pressure to allow humanitarian aid into the strip and agree to a ceasfire, has insisted that “there is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza”, but world leaders, including Trump, have split with the prime minister and pressed him to allow much-needed aid to vulnerable civilians in Gaza.
“They need food, and they need people to be able to get them the food,” Trump told reporters Tuesday when he returned to the United States after visiting Scotland.
The president’s comments came one day after he claimed that children in Gaza “look very hungry,” disputing Netanyahu’s claims that there was no starvation. Trump also claimed the U.S. would set up food centers in Gaza.
Other foreign leaders have also called on Israel to allow more food to enter Gaza.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who met with Trump during his Scotland trip, announced on Tuesday that his nation would recognize a sovereign Palestinian state in September if Israel does not work toward a ceasefire in the battle against Hamas and a two-state solution. The U.K. will join France in recognizing Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly.
“We’ve never discussed this. Surprisingly, it was never really discussed, maybe a little bit at the news conference,” Trump told reporters when asked if he knew about Starmer’s announcement. “We have no view on that; we’re going to get a lot of money to the area so they can get some food. He’s going to also.”
“I think the European Union is going to put up money too for food, and hopefully it’s going to be properly distributed,” Trump added. “And it will be.”
But Trump stopped short of pressuring Israel to agree to a long-term solution.
“You could make the case that you’re rewarding people, that you know you’re rewarding Hamas if you do that,” he said. “And I don’t think they should be rewarded. So I’m not in that camp, to be honest.”
Vance echoed Trump’s concerns about Hamas this week by calling for more food to enter Gaza. “We also want to make sure that the thugs and Hamas that are preventing them from getting food are stopping that process. So we gotta get food to the neediest people,” said Vance during an appearance in Canton, Ohio.
The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip, said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading expert on food crises, in a new alert on Tuesday. There has been significant shock at the spread of bone-thin children dying of hunger in Gaza. Over the weekend, Israel announced it would allow Arab countries to resume the airdrops of food after such operations were suspended for months.
Voter support for Israel, a top U.S. ally, continues to decrease, with 60% of Americans who disapprove of the Israel-Hamas war, nearly double the 32% of respondents who approve, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a MAGA firebrand, slammed Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) for openly calling “for starving innocent people and children.”
“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct. 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” Greene posted on X. “But a Jewish U.S. Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful.”
The comments were striking, given the GOP’s strong support for Israel, but they also signal that voters are unwilling to stomach starving children in Gaza.
“While there is no question that the United States under the Trump administration and the Republican majority in Congress steadfastly supports Israel, we are seeing a willingness among certain voices in the administration and Congress to criticize Netanyahu and his government in ways that may have once been unthinkable,” said Dennis Lennox, a GOP strategist.
“Some of the criticism may just be posturing in broader diplomatic negotiations with Muslim countries and actors in the region, though some of it, like Ambassador Huckabee’s rebuke of the Israeli government’s blocking of visas for Christian clergy, was very noteworthy because the U.S. seemingly had to go public to get Netanyahu to reverse course,” Lennox continued. “It’s not inconceivable that Netanyahu, who has been on the scene for a very long time, may be running out of political capital.”
This week, two Israeli human rights advocacy groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, also accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in separate reports, marking the first time domestic groups have accused the Middle Eastern nation of meeting the legal definition of genocide.
Aseel Aburass, director of the Occupied Palestinian Territories department for the Physicians for Human Rights—Israel, “welcomed” Trump’s comments contradicting Netanyahu on the growing crises.
“But I didn’t see any shift on the bigger … more structural level,” said Aburass, who pointed to Trump’s lack of comments on ending military aid to Israel. “Stating that starvation is real and asking for more food to come in is not enough.”
“I’m a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship. As a Palestinian myself, for me, it’s just disgusting to say the least that Palestinians, Gazans, you need to see their rib cages in order to get a statement like that,” Aburass continued. “You need to see them starving. You need to see women falling while walking or being killed on distribution sides of the so-called humanitarian GHF [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] in order to say starvation is real.”
The liberal pro-Israel Jewish organization J Street similarly pushed for a long-term solution, echoing calls from international leaders.
“It certainly seems that the horror of the humanitarian situation in Gaza is reaching such a severe point that politicians in both parties can no longer ignore it,” said Ilan Goldenberg, J Street’s senior VP and chief policy officer. “The suffering of those in Gaza is not new, but I do hope the increased understanding of their reality will lead to tangible policy shifts to surge aid into Gaza, secure the release of the remaining hostages, and end this conflict.”
But Netanyahu is adamantly against Palestinian statehood and has boycotted a high-level U.N. conference that backed a two-state solution this week.
“Netanyahu said clearly, but mostly in Hebrew, that his goal is to move people out of Gaza,” said Bartov, the genocide scholar.
UK WILL RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE IF ISRAEL DOES NOT TAKE STEPS TO END GAZA CONFLICT
The Physicians for Human Rights—Israel report acknowledged that the long-term damage in Gaza is making life inhospitable for residents. “What we’re writing in the report really fits that Israel is not just destroying the way we’re analyzing. Israel is not just destroying the healthcare system, but destroying every condition of life that makes life even possible,” said Aburass.
Bartov also claimed that if things continue, “it will definitely get worse” in Gaza. “It’s a complete hell what is happening there. It’s almost surprising this crisis didn’t start before,” he said.