US President Donald Trump has said that he wants Israel to feed the hungry people of Gaza. Trump said before boarding Air Force One in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday (local time) that the US wanted the Gazans to be fed, and they are actually doing it.
“We want the people fed — and we’re the only country that’s really doing that. We’re putting up money to get the people fed… We want Israel to get them fed,” Trump said.
Trump refuses to label the Israeli onslaught in Gaza as genocide
“We don’t want people to starve, and some bad things are happening,” he added. Trump said he doesn’t think the war in Gaza is a genocide, asserting that “some horrible things happened” during the Hamas-led onslaught that triggered the war on October 7, 2023, The Times of Israel reported.
When Trump was asked by reporters whether he characterised Israel’s response as genocide.
” I don’t think it’s that,” he responded, The Times of Israel reported.”They’re in a war,” Trump added.
Israel’s former top-ranked security officials call for an end to the war in Gaza
Meanwhile, more than a dozen former senior security officials put out a joint video with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that Israel has racked up more losses than victories, and that the fighting has dragged on for political reasons rather than being based on strategic military decisions, as per The Times of Israel.
Among the 19 retired Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chiefs of staff, intelligence chiefs, Shin Bet and Mossad directors, and police commissioners are former IDF chief of staff and prime minister Ehud Barak, former chiefs of staff Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz, and ex-Shin Bet director Yoram Cohen.”
Each of these people sat in cabinet meetings, operated in the inner circles, attended all the most sensitive decision-making processes, the most delicate,” says a voiceover at the start of the video by way of introduction. “Together, they have more than a thousand years’ experience in national security and diplomacy,” as per The Times of Israel.
In the video, the men argued that the fighting in Gaza could have ended long ago, and demanded that Israel end the war with a permanent ceasefire and comprehensive hostage deal that will see the release of all 50 remaining hostages in one fell swoop.