Trump delivers different message on Gaza when recapping call with Netanyahu

President Donald Trump apparently pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Gaza during their latest conversation. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he told Netanyahu ‘You’ve got to be good to Gaza’ because the people there ‘are suffering.’

‘There’s a very big need for food and medicine, and we’re taking care of it,’ Trump told reporters. Trump also noted that Netanyahu ‘felt well’ about the push to get more aid into Gaza.

This message seems to mark a departure from the more aggressive stance he has taken in the past. Before he returned to office, Trump warned Hamas there would be ‘hell to pay’ if the hostages were not released. In February, when Netanyahu visited the White House, Trump suggested that the U.S. take over the Strip and turn it into a ‘riviera.’ 

A few days after Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, Trump said Israel should ‘let all hell break out’ if Hamas failed to release all remaining hostages by the U.S. president’s noon deadline. Hamas did not free the hostages, but Israel held off on resuming the war until March 18. Before ground operations restarted, 33 hostages were freed. 

Aid trucks have not entered Gaza since March 2, and there has been international uproar over the growing crisis inside the Strip. While Trump is seemingly pushing Netanyahu to change his approach to Gaza, Israel has said it would not let aid enter the Strip until the remaining hostages are released.

There is concern and frustration in Israel over allegations that aid has gone to Hamas terrorists instead of the people of Gaza. In November 2024, the Associated Press reported that prices in Gaza skyrocketed after nearly 100 trucks of food and humanitarian aid were looted by armed men. 

While speaking to the United Nations Security Council, freed Hamas hostage Eli Sharabi said his captors often had boxes of supplies with U.N. logos on them in the tunnels. Sharabi, who weighed just 97 pounds when he was released, said the hostages were starved while ‘Hamas eats link kings.’

The Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an Israeli agency, said that when the hostage deal was in place, 25,200 trucks entered Gaza carrying 447,538 tons of humanitarian aid.