The vast majority of people in Gaza — 93 percent — are facing crisis levels of food insecurity, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen said that the United States is “complicit” in their hunger.
When asked on CBS’s Face the Nation about photographs of starving children in Gaza, Van Hollen said, “It’s very hard to look at those pictures. And the United States has been complicit. President Trump was in the region and really did nothing, said virtually nothing about what’s happening in Gaza, which is on fire.”
The Democratic senator added, “We’re in the 77th day of a full blockade. Two million Palestinians are starving. This is collective punishment that is clearly illegal under international law.”
While the war rages on following the collapse of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, with Israel laying siege to the Gaza strip in a new offensive, the Trump administration has been laying groundwork for a U.S.-backed private operation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, that it says will deliver aid to Palestinians starting at the end of this month. But the plan, in which the foundation would work with private U.S. security firms to bring food and supplies into designated areas of Gaza for aid groups to distribute, has many critics, including the United Nations.
“This particular distribution plan does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence, and we will not be participating in this,” deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said Thursday.
“To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time: We already have a plan,” Tom Fletcher, head of UN aid, said in a statement.
The food situation in Gaza is dire after a months-long Israeli blockade on aid entering the strip, which the Israeli government says is meant to force Hamas to release Israeli hostages. World leaders are calling on Israel to lift the blockade to alleviate some of the suffering of innocent Palestinians.
“We call upon the government of Israel to immediately reverse its current policy, refrain from further military operations and fully lift the blockade, ensuring safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian aid to be distributed throughout the Gaza strip by international humanitarian actors,” the leaders of Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain said in a joint statement.
The World Health Organization has also weighed in. “We do not need to wait for a declaration of famine in Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “Today’s report shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing more deaths and descent into famine.”
“President Trump today could call upon the Netanyahu government to let aid in,” Van Hollen said. “I mean, the president acknowledged there are people starving in Gaza the other day. He said so. But why hasn’t he called on Netanyahu to let the aid in? Let’s just start with that.”
Trump has advocated for turning Gaza into a so-called “freedom zone” and relocating the some 2 million Palestinians who live there. This has drawn broad disapproval from around the globe, with the UN saying it would constitute ethnic cleansing.
On Sunday, special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff emphasized that Netanyahu and Trump share the same goals.
“I don’t think there’s any daylight between President Trump’s position and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position,” he told host Jonathan Karl on ABC’s This Week.
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