GAZA CITY: US President Donald Trump said on Friday “a lot of people are starving” in the besieged Gaza Strip, where rescuers reported more than 50 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.
On Friday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said that 56 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since midnight, with medics reporting dozens more injured. When asked by AFP, the Israeli army made no comment on the strikes.
“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 militant group Hamas, 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”.
Israel’s latest strikes sparked panic in northern Gaza.
“We were asleep when suddenly everything exploded around us,” north Gaza resident Umm Mohammed al-Tatari, 57, told AFP.
“Everyone started running. We saw the destruction with our own eyes. There was blood everywhere, body parts and corpses. We didn’t know who was dead and who was still alive.”
Another resident, 33-year-old Ahmed Nasr, said the bombing continued through the night.
“We couldn’t sleep or find any peace. There is no safety. We could die at any moment,” he said.
‘Historic opportunity’
Hamas sparked the war in October 2023 with an unprecedented attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
The health ministry in Gaza said 2,876 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,010.
