US President Donald Trump reportedly clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the food security situation in Gaza, among other issues, the Atlantic reported on Thursday.
Senior US administration officials said that Trump believes that Netanyahu has extended the war in Gaza to further his political career. They also told The Atlantic that they believe that the prime minister has repeatedly interfered with ceasefire talks.
The Atlantic also reported that the administration was upset over IDF airstrikes in Syria and a strike that hit Gaza’s only Catholic Church. The US president believes that these actions, alongside the international perception of the food security crisis in Gaza, are harming Trump’s reported efforts to expand the Abraham Accords.
Trump is willing to break with Netanyahu over the perception of the food security situation in Gaza due to his "America first" policy, namely that some in his base have warned against entering a conflict on foreign soil.
This being said, the two officials expressed that they did not think that Trump would punish Netanyahu in any impactful way. A White House official told the Atlantic that “there is no significant rupture” between the two, but that “allies can sometimes disagree, even in a very real way.”
On Monday, far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) called the situation in Gaza a “genocide.”
US aides have reportedly discussed pushing Israel to dramatically increase the amount of aid that enters Gaza, so that even if some is stolen by Hamas, more than enough will find its way into the hands of civilians.
Officials said that Trump sent his special envoy Steve Witkoff to Israel to assess the aid distribution situation in Gaza, including the viability of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Trump and Netanyahu reportedly split on Gaza aid
Though Trump has called for Hamas to end the war, and has said that Israel needs to “finish the job” in Gaza, he has also broken with Netanyahu’s assertions that there is “no starvation” in Gaza.
“Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry,” Trump said. “That’s real starvation stuff. I see it, and you can’t fake that.”
The Israel-Hamas War and Netanyahu’s perceived defiance of Trump have created another major news story for the president, who is also attempting to quell discontent from his supporters regarding the Epstein files and the Ukraine-Russia War.
“He just really wants these stories to stop being on TV,” an adviser told the news site.