Lawmakers see Gaza crisis as serious test for Trump’s Middle East policy

The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza is seriously testing President Trump's Middle East policy as well as Congress's traditional support for Israel and its armed forces as Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill grow increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Senate Republicans are warning that Netanyahu’s disregard of reported failures to deliver food aid to civilians in Gaza, including thousands of children, risks becoming a political problem for Trump.

GOP lawmakers say that Trump sent a message to Netanyahu on Monday when he pointedly disagreed with the Israeli prime minister’s claim that there’s “no starvation” in Gaza, despite many images of emaciated civilian adults and children.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said the crisis in Gaza “could be” a political problem for Trump.

“I think that the American people at the end of the day are a kind people. They don’t like seeing suffering, nor do I think the president does,” he said. “If you see starvation, you try to fix it.”

Tillis said Trump won’t step away from his commitment to Israel but observed the president appears to be holding Israeli officials “accountable.”

“He’s right to hold elected [officials] accountable and I would encourage Mr. Netanyahu to just be sensitive to that,” he said, while also pointing out that Netanyahu is in a difficult position because he’s dealing with Hamas terrorists who are using starving civilians as human shields.

And Tillis argued the pain and suffering in Gaza is “a direct result of the action of their elected leadership in Hamas,” referring to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli settlements.

Trump on Monday said that “based on television” the children of Gaza “look very hungry” and said there appears to be “real starvation.”

Images of emaciated children, especially, have shocked lawmakers in both parties in recent weeks as the effects of Israel’s four-month siege on the war-torn enclave are becoming more pronounced.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she is “very concerned” about “the innocent people in Gaza who are at risk of hunger or even starvation.”

She added, “Israel is trying to resume assistance” to Palestinian civilians, and, like Tillis, she called Hamas a “terrorist organization” that “started this war.”

“The best way to end it is for Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and release all of the hostages remaining,” she said.

The United Nations has estimated that nearly 1 in 3 people in Gaza are going without food for days at a time, and hospitals in the area are reporting deaths from starvation. At least 24 children younger than 5 have died from hunger-related causes in July, according to the World Health Organization.

Some of the loudest criticism on Capitol Hill is coming from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of Trump’s staunchest MAGA-aligned allies, who warned in a social media post Monday evening that “genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation” is “happening in Gaza.”

One Republican senator requested anonymity to comment candidly on Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict in Gaza and the failure to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians.

“There is a real problem in Gaza that needs to be addressed, and world opinion has moved in that direction,” said the GOP lawmaker.

The senator said Trump’s public break with Netanyahu on whether there is indeed starvation represented a “shift” in the administration’s position.

“Now it’s accentuated, that concern,” the lawmaker said. “The world is changing in that regard.”

A Gallup poll conducted from July 7 to July 21 found that only 32 percent of surveyed Americans approve of Israel’s military action in Gaza, a drop of 10 percentage points compared with September. It was the lowest reading since Gallup first started asking about the issue in November 2023.

GOP lawmakers say that the crisis in Gaza is likely to complicate Trump’s efforts to build stronger economic and security ties with predominantly Muslim Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), when asked Tuesday about Greene’s “genocide” claim and Netanyahu’s slipping support among Americans, said he shared Trump’s view on starvation happening in Gaza.

“I share the president’s view. The humanitarian thing, obviously, when you see people hurting like that, is to want to help meet that need and alleviate that pain,” he told reporters. “I think our government and I think other governments around the world, other nations, are very interested in doing what they can to [help] people who through no fault of their own are being harmed.”

But Thune also accused Hamas of intercepting and diverting a lot of the food aid going to Gaza.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are ramping up pressure on Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to advocate for a large-scale expansion of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, calling the “humanitarian crisis in Gaza” both “acute” and “unsustainable.”

A group of 40 Senate Democrats wrote a letter to Rubio and Witkoff on Tuesday, warning that “hunger and malnutrition” in Gaza are “widespread” and “deaths due to starvation, especially among children are increasing.”

Notably, the letter was led by several prominent Jewish Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Sens. Adam Schiff (Calif.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii), the Democrats' chief deputy whip.

The lawmakers took aim at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the American nonprofit organization established with the approval of the Israeli government in February to deliver food aid.

They argued that the group has “failed to address the deepening humanitarian crisis” and has “contributed to an unacceptable and mounting civilian death toll around the organization’s sites.”

The U.N. human rights office said last week that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food at these sites.

Rosen said Democrats want Hamas to release the remaining hostages, but she declared, “We have to be sure we address the suffering in Gaza.”

“We need to get that humanitarian aid in, relieve the suffering, and we have to find that path forward for the day after,” she said.

Sen. Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, declared on Monday that he would oppose “any” support for Israel while the hunger crisis lasts in Gaza.

“I am through supporting the actions of the current Israeli government and will advocate — and vote — for an end to any United States support whatsoever until there is a demonstrable change in the Israeli policy,” he said in a statement posted on his website.

King said he received a “positive” reaction from people in Maine and even “friends in the Jewish community.”

He said he hopes other senators will follow his example.

“Even the president noted the problem yesterday,” he said of Trump’s statement about starvation in Gaza.

King warned that Israel’s harsh tactics in Gaza are “disastrous” for its support among global leaders and its standing among Americans who have been bombarded with disturbing images from Gaza.

“They’re losing the support of a whole generation of Americans. These young people who are protesting 10 or 15 years from now are going to be in Congress. It’s a self-inflicted wound, it’s unnecessary,” he said.

King said he thinks this sentiment is shared by colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

“I think everybody is concerned about this,” he said. “The president made a pretty straightforward statement.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), an outspoken supporter of Israel, warned in an interview with journalist Chuck Todd on Sunday that Netanyahu had done “irreparable damage” to Israel’s relationship with Democrats.

Asked whether Netanyahu’s policies are endangering the relationship between the United States and Israel, Rosen, a leading Democratic voice on Israel-related issues, replied: “That will be up to history to judge.”