Trump says Gaza faces ‘real starvation’ — and most Americans agree, poll finds
According to new polling, the vast majority of Americans believe Gaza now faces a severe food shortage — a view echoed by President Donald Trump, other world leaders and aid groups.
In the latest YouGov/Economist survey, 68% of respondents said there is a hunger crisis in Gaza, while just 5% said there is not. An additional 27% said they are not sure.
On this question, a bipartisan consensus formed, with 84% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans stating that a hunger crisis is taking place.
The poll comes as global leaders have sounded alarm bells over the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where Israel’s war against Hamas has raged for nearly two years, resulting in more than 55,000 Palestinian deaths, according to Gaza health officials.
“The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on July 24. “While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen.”
The same day, France President Emmanuel Macron called for “massive humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.”
In contrast, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied anyone is starving in the Palestinian territory or that Israel is purposefully cutting off food, calling such claims “bold-faced” lies. He’s also accused Hamas of stealing aid.
Trump, though, appeared to break with Netanyhu in recent remarks.
Asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader’s assessment on July 28, the U.S. president said, “I don’t know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry.” He later said, “That’s real starvation. I see it and you can’t fake that,” adding that Israel should allow “every ounce of food” into Gaza.
Multiple humanitarian groups have also warned that large shares of Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents face famine and starvation — in large part because of restrictions on aid.
“Relentless conflict, the collapse of essential services, and severe limitations on the delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance imposed on the U.N. have led to catastrophic food security conditions for hundreds of thousands of people across the Gaza Strip,” the World Food Program said on July 29. It said it delivered 350 truckloads of aid last week, representing only about half of the convoys it asked Israel to send in.
“We’ve been banned from bringing in any humanitarian assistance into Gaza for more than four months now,” said Juliette Touma, the director of communications at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
As a result, about 20% of Gaza’s children are malnourished, the group said, adding that the only way to alleviate the situation is to flood Gaza with assistance.
And, when food does arrive, those attempting to access it have faced grave danger, according to the U.N., which reported in mid-July that the Israeli military opened fire on Palestinians attempting to collect food, resulting in 875 deaths.
The YouGov/Economist survey — conducted with 6,404 U.S. adults on July 29 — also asked respondents whether the U.S. and Israel are doing enough to alleviate the hunger crisis in Gaza.
With regards to Israel, a plurality of respondents, 46%, said it is not doing enough, while 15% said it is doing the right amount, and 6% said it is doing too much. About one-third said they weren’t sure.
The results were about the same for the U.S., with 43% saying it is not doing enough to resolve the hunger crisis and 19% saying it is doing about the right amount.
The survey has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points.
This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Trump says Gaza faces ‘real starvation’ — and most Americans agree, poll finds."