The grim reality of Gaza’s hunger crisis appears to be shifting U.S. public opinion

Hamas-Israel ceasefire talks have collapsed several times, with each side accusing the other of not being serious about an agreement. Israel has insisted that Hamas agrees to step down and disarm, while the militant group has demanded that Israeli forces withdraw completely from the enclave.

There has also been a drop in American support for Israel’s actions, according to a recent Gallup poll which showed that the majority of adults do not support military operations in Gaza. At the beginning of the conflict in 2023, roughly half of Americans were supportive of Israel’s military actions.

Support for Palestinians has also grown within the Republican caucus, which is typically unified in its support for Israel. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a close Trump ally, has been increasingly critical of Israel in recent days. On Monday, she became the first Republican lawmaker to refer to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a “genocide.”

Asked by NBC News about Trump’s comments on allowing more aid into Gaza, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that he agreed with the president. “When you see people hurting in a need like that, is to want to help meet that need and alleviate that pain,” he said.

Their comments came after President Donald Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s suggestion that “there is no starvation in Gaza.”

Speaking in Scotland on Monday, Trump said that he had seen images of Palestinians on television and that there were scenes of “real starvation” in the enclave. “You can’t fake that,” he added. “We have to get the kids fed,” he said, adding that the U.S. would set up food centers in Gaza.

Trump did not elaborate on what steps the U.S. would take to provide more aid to Palestinians or whether it would involve the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial, Delaware-based group, backed by both the U.S. and Israel, that has been operating in Gaza since May.

And Trump has not indicated that the United States’ fundamental stance toward Israel is set to change.

Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding in 1948, according to a November analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, which said the country had received “about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance.”

House Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Brad Schneider of Illinois and Robert Menendez Jr. of New Jersey, have also ramped up their advocacy for sending more aid into Gaza. Pelosi, in a post on X on Sunday, called the situation a “catastrophic moral emergency.”

Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement Monday that he is “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 direction of Israeli policy.”

“My litmus test will be simple: no aid of any kind as long as there are starving children in Gaza due to the action or inaction of the Israeli government,” he added.

Vermont Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch co-sponsored legislation this week to block the sale of certain weapons to Israel in response to Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, Welch said, “We cannot continue to be complicit. History will judge us for not standing up against this humanitarian catastrophe and these war crimes.”

Convincing Netanyahu to change course “really does depend on whether the United States has had enough,” Hanna said, adding that the Israeli government did not appear willing to strike a ceasefire and hostage release deal if it was left to its own devices.