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Trump Says Many in Gaza Are ‘Starving’ 

Palestinians wait for their food rations outside a distribution center in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 15, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinians wait for their food rations outside a distribution center in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 15, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Says Many in Gaza Are ‘Starving’ 

Palestinians wait for their food rations outside a distribution center in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 15, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinians wait for their food rations outside a distribution center in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 15, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump said Friday "a lot of people are starving" in the besieged Gaza Strip, where rescuers reported more than 60 deaths in Israeli air strikes since midnight.  

Trump's brief comments on Gaza came as he capped the first foreign tour of his second term that saw him visit several Gulf countries, but excluded key ally Israel.  

A two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in March, shortly after Israel reimposed a total blockade on Gaza that aid agencies say has sparked critical food shortages. 

"We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving," Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi. 

Israel cut off aid to Gaza on March 2, a tactic it has said is intended to force concessions from the Hamas group, which is still holding dozens of Israeli hostages it seized in October 2023. 

Hamas insisted on Thursday that the restoration of humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged territory was "the minimum requirement" for talks.  

It also warned that Gaza was not "for sale" hours after Trump again floated taking over the territory and turning it into "a freedom zone". 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that Washington is troubled by the humanitarian situation in Gaza. 

Rubio, speaking to reporters in Antalya, Türkiye, said the US was "not immune or in any way insensitive to the suffering of people in Gaza."  

He repeated the Trump administration's stance that Hamas fighter are to blame for the situation in Gaza.  

"We think that the elimination of Hamas is what achieves peace. We're troubled by the humanitarian situation," Rubio said.  

It was the first time Rubio has addressed the situation in Gaza since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced it will start work in Gaza by the end of May under a heavily-criticized distribution plan.  

He said he had heard criticism of the plan and that the US was open to an alternative plan.  

"It allows people to get aid without Hamas stealing it," Rubio said. "We'll continue to work towards that in ways that we think are constructive and productive." 

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Arab World

EU Ministers Discuss Deal with Israel to Increase Gaza Aid

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
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EU Ministers Discuss Deal with Israel to Increase Gaza Aid

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

The European Union is seeking updates from Israel on implementation of a new deal to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to Kaja Kallas, the bloc's foreign policy chief.

Foreign ministers from the EU's 27-member nations are meeting Tuesday in Brussels in the wake of a new aid deal for Gaza largely forged by Kallas and Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar, The AP news reported.

Saar met with EU leaders on Monday after agreeing last week allow desperately needed food and fuel into the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people who have endured more than 21 months of war.

“We have reached a common understanding with Israel to really improve the situation on the ground, but it’s not about the paper, but actually implementation of the paper," Kallas said before the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council.

“As long as it hasn’t really improved, then we haven’t all done enough,” she said, before calling for a ceasefire.

Details of the deal remain unclear, but EU officials have rejected any cooperation with the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund over ethical and safety concerns. Opening more border crossings and allowing more aid trucks into Gaza is the priority, but officials say eventually they’d like to set up a monitoring station at Kerem Shalom crossing.

Kallas said the ministers will also discuss Iran’s nuclear program, concerns over developments in Georgia and Moldova, and new sanctions on Russia. The EU is readying its 18th package of sanctions on Russia, with holdouts within the bloc arguing over the keystone policy of capping oil prices to cut into Moscow’s energy revenues.

European nations like Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain have increasingly called for the EU's ties with Israel to be reassessed in the wake of the war in Gaza.

A report by the European Commission found “ indications ” that Israel’s actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in the agreement governing its ties with the EU — but the block is divided over what to do in response.

That public pressure over Israel's conduct in Gaza made the new humanitarian deal possible even before a ceasefire, said Caspar Veldkamp, the Dutch foreign minister. “That force of the 27 EU member states is what I want to maintain now," he said.

“The humanitarian deal announced last week shows that the Association Agreement review and use of EU leverage has worked," said one European diplomat.

Spain's Foreign Minister José Manual Albares Bueno said details of the deal were still being discussed and that the EU would monitor results to see if Israel is complying with those.

“We don’t know whether it we will know how it works,” he said. “It's very clear that this agreement is not the end — we have to stop the war."

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023 on October 7. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

The EU has observed some aid trucks entering Gaza, but “not enough,” said Hajda Lahbib, the EU Commissioner for humanitarian air and crisis management.

“The situation is still so dangerous, so violent, with strikes still continuing on the ground, that our humanitarian partners cannot operate. So, this is the reality we need to have a ceasefire," she said.