Public opinion about Israel’s conduct in Gaza appears to be changing in the United States and elsewhere as striking photos and videos of emaciated children and their starving parents emerge and aid agencies warn of famine.
“The situation is just indefensible and catastrophically bad. The suffering is really acute,” Michael Wahid Hanna, the U.S. program director at the International Crisis Group, a think tank, told NBC News on Tuesday. “Press coverage has changed. In the past two weeks, in particular, I feel like there has been a tipping point in terms of how the war is being covered. So I think you’ve seen natural reactions.”
One lingering question, observers say, is whether statements by American officials or a broader shift in global opinion will convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change his policy and put a stop to military operations in the Gaza Strip, where the death toll topped 60,000 Tuesday, according to Palestinian health officials.
The grim milestone was reached the same day the world’s leading body on hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, said that the situation in Gaza was the “worst-case scenario of famine,” noting that starvation, malnutrition and disease were leading to a spike in deaths.
Within hours, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the United Kingdom would recognize Palestine as a state, although that could change if the Israeli government takes “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza.” It followed a similar statement from French President Emmanuel Macron last week.
Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Gideon Sa’ar, called the international pressure on the country “distorted” in a statement Tuesday. He added that it had “already caused Hamas to harden its position,” and was “directly sabotaging the chances for a ceasefire and hostage deal.”
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 showing 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, of Georgia, 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.”
Her 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.
Asked by NBC News about Trump’s comments on allowing more aid into Gaza, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., 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.
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, of California, 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, an independent from Maine 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.
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch of Vermont 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, of the International Crisis Group, 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.
Britain and France, like many governments, voiced wholehearted support for Israel after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and resulted in 250 being taken hostage. If they end up recognizing Palestine, Britain and France would join more than 140 countries that already do so.
Criticism of Israel's conduct in the conflict grew after it instituted a new aid distribution system. This scheme, which only has four aid distribution centers, was brought in to replace the old one run by the United Nations that organized across hundreds of sites.
Since then, Israeli troops have fired into crowds of desperate Palestinians, more than 1,000 of whom have been killed during that time, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last week.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of stealing aid and disrupting shipments in Gaza. Last week, an internal U.S. government review concluded that the militant group was not responsible for systematically looting aid.
Recently, Netanyahu and his government have made some concessions by announcing a limited pause in fighting in some areas of the Gaza Strip and allowing the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and some other countries to airdrop aid packages into Gaza.
However, aid groups and humanitarian organizations have questioned the strategy, saying this will do little to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. Air drops in general are notoriously unreliable: It is impossible to say where they will land, and they can drop into dangerous parts of Gaza.