Netanyahu hits out at WFP Chief over ‘women and children are starving in Gaza’ comment

“She said that during her recent visit to Gaza, she saw a dramatic improvement: food was available, prices had dropped, and markets showed goods in sufficient supply and at affordable prices. It is regrettable that Mrs. McCain has since issued statements contradicting what she told us in Jerusalem. That is a misrepresentation. Israel is enabling a steady flow of aid in sufficient quantities,” the statement said.

💥@Netanyahu slams Cindy McCain (and misrepresents the timeline of events) after she didn’t comply with the statement he attributed to her. Netanyahu does this all the time– usually, the embarrassed other party shuts up. @IsraeliPM is run like a mean high-school club.@WFPChief https://t.co/FBHv2LHrzH pic.twitter.com/nxeAYDQNGJ

— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي (@NTarnopolsky) August 29, 2025

What Cindy McCain said

Cindy, the wife of late US Senator John McCain met Netanyahu on Wednesday. A day later, she posted on X, saying, “Gaza is at a breaking point. I’ve just seen it myself.”

“Families in Gaza are starving—and we know how to deliver at scale. We must revive our network of 200+ food distribution points, community kitchens and bakeries ASAP,” she added.

#Gaza is at a breaking point. I’ve just seen it myself.
@WFP operates in conflict zones all over the world. Families in Gaza are starving—and we know how to deliver at scale.

We must revive our network of 200+ food distribution points, community kitchens & bakeries ASAP.

— Cindy McCain (@WFPChief) August 28, 2025

WFP Chief meets starving families in Gaza

The WFP Chief has since doubled down on her claim about the famine in Gaza. On Thursday, McCain told The Associated Press that it was “very evident” during her visit to Gaza this week that there isn’t enough food in the Palestinian territory.

According to her, the Gaza Strip’s largest city is gripped by famine, and it was likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.

Palestinians struggle to get food and humanitarian aid from the back of a truck as it moves along the Morag corridor near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga, File)

“I personally met mothers and children who were starving in Gaza,” she said. “It is real and it is happening now.” According to her Netanyahu was “obviously very concerned that people aren’t getting enough food.”

In the past, Netanyahu has denied that there is famine in Gaza and said the claims about starvation are a propaganda campaign launched by Hamas.

“We agreed that we must immediately redouble our efforts to get more humanitarian aid in. Access and security for our convoys is critical,” McCain said.

McCain spent most of Tuesday on a tour of Gaza, speaking to displaced families living in tents and facing hunger. “I got to meet a family who had come from the North, there were 11 of them, and they’d come from the North and they literally had not had enough food at all and they still don’t have enough food,” she said.

McCain said her programme is getting more food into Gaza, but said a surge in food supplies was needed.

Present-day catastrophe: Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said famine in Gaza is “a present-day catastrophe” and the start of expanded Israeli military operations present “a new and dangerous phase.” He said it will have “devastating consequences” and force hundreds of thousands of traumatised and exhausted civilians to flee again.“Gaza is piled with rubble, piled with bodies, and piled with examples of what may be serious violations of international law,” he said.

The famine declaration has increased international pressure on Israel, which has been fighting Hamas since the militant group’s deadly attack on October 7, 2023.

Israel’s reaction to famine declaration

Israel has rejected the declaration issued by the authority on food crises known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC — and on Wednesday asked for a formal retraction. The Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, known as COGAT, said Thursday that more than 300 humanitarian aid trucks enter Gaza every day, most of them carrying food.

But aid groups say it’s not nearly enough after 22 months of fighting, the blockade of aid earlier this year and the collapse of food production in Gaza.

Israel now says it plans to seize Gaza City and other Hamas strongholds, and there have been no public signs of progress on recent efforts for a ceasefire.

Israel yet to respond on ceasefire

Mediators Egypt and Qatar were still waiting for Israel’s response to a 60-day ceasefire proposal in Gaza, which has been accepted by Hamas, Qatari foreign minister said Thursday.

The proposal, which Egyptian and Qatari mediators delivered to Israel earlier this month, calls for a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages and the handover of bodies of 18 dead ones, according to Arab mediators. It also calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces to a buffer zone on Gaza.