US President Donald Trump spoke to the press on Monday as he welcomed UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.
Regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the President said that his number one priority is to feed people, "You have a lot of starving people. The US gave $60 million just a couple of weeks ago; it's a lot of money. No other nation gave money. We gave 60 million, and no one even said thank you." He noted that other nations will likely join in providing financial aid.
Trump said that, according to what he sees on television, the assessment that there is no starvation in Gaza is wrong, noting that "those children look very hungry. But we're giving a lot of money and a lot of food." Prime Minister Starmer added that people are "revolted" by what they are seeing on their screens and thanked the President for leading the efforts to reach a ceasefire and getting more aid in.
Asked if he thinks Israel has done all it could to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, Trump replied that "nobody's done anything great over there, the whole place is a mess."
This being said, he put the blame on Hamas, saying that the terror organization "did a horrible thing and they paid a big price. I always said, when you get down to the last 20 or ten, they won't release them because that's like their shield; it's very unfair. So something's going to have to be done. They (Hamas) were really unwilling to talk. We got a lot out, and now, possibly, the fight will have to be a little bit different. I told Bibi that you're going to have to do it a different way."
He concluded that "a ceasefire is possible, but you have to end it."
Following the bilateral meeting, the President added, "I'm speaking to Bibi Netanyahu, and we're coming up with various plans; it's a very difficult situation. If they didn't have the hostages, things would go very quickly. But they do, and we know where they have them, in some cases. You don't want to go riding roughshod over there because that means those hostages would be killed."
He noted that "some people would say, 'Well, that's the price you pay,' but we don't like to say that, and I don't think the people of Israel want to say that Israel either, it's pretty amazing. You could also say that speed might be better for the hostages."
Trump mentioned the October 7th Massacre and stated, "You can't forget it. They tend to forget it, but that was one of the worst things I've ever seen."