A new United Nations-endorsed report out of the Gaza Strip is claiming that Gaza’s inhabitants are experiencing a severe famine that has led to a hunger crisis, leading President Trump to pledge to step up U.S. aid. But some experts on the ground in Israel are disputing the veracity of the reports, saying that inaccurate media stories and the activities of the terrorist group Hamas are exploiting Gazan civilians and the ongoing military conflict, even as they refuse to release the remaining hostages.

On Tuesday, a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) alleged that “The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.” It went on to state that over 20,000 children have received treatment for malnutrition over the past four months and that in Gaza City, “16 out of every 100 children under 5 are acutely malnourished.”

Israeli officials are challenging the reports, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Monday that “there is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”

But President Trump is beginning to step up public pressure on Israel to increase its humanitarian aid to Gaza. “Some of those kids — that’s real starvation stuff, I see it. You can’t fake that,” he remarked on Monday. He went on to state that the U.S. and Europe would initiate a program to deliver food directly to Gazans, although it was not clear if the president was referring to the already existing Gaza Humanitarian Foundation program that is backed by Israel.

Outlets like The Wall Street Journal have reported that the “humanitarian situation has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks across the Gaza Strip, with residents often going full days without eating a meal and medical workers warning of rapidly rising malnutrition, especially among children.” The IPC report further stated that 86% of households are reporting not having any food at all at regular intervals. In response, Israel has stepped up airdrops of aid and has also “agreed to a one-week scale-up of aid that would include lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt.”

But observers say the humanitarian crisis could end swiftly if Hamas would agree to a ceasefire and release the remaining hostages still in its grip, who have now been in captivity for over 660 days. Israeli officials say that Hamas still holds approximately 20 living hostages, “along with the remains of up to 50 others.”

Family members of the remaining hostages are voicing fears that the world has moved on from the crisis due to how long it has drawn out. “I’m very worried about it, just seeing how public interest drops, really drops,” Ilay David, brother of hostage Evyatar David, told the New York Post. “I think the world is forgetting. The common people are forgetting. It’s sad.”

David continued, “[The hostages] are the reason why the war hasn’t stopped yet, because if Hamas released them, the suffering would end. And it’s hard that Hamas is using the suffering of its own people to manipulate us, to manipulate the Western world, to manipulate Americans.”

After a meeting to discuss the hostages with top advisors Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that his government has “not stopped trying” to secure the release of the hostages, even after the latest round of negotiations with Hamas failed last week in Qatar.

“But there is one major obstacle, and everyone knows it — Hamas,” he remarked. “It remains obstinate in its refusal. President Trump said it, [U.S. special envoy Steve] Witkoff said it, we’re saying it — everyone who knows the facts, including the mediators, knows it. … We are not letting up. We will continue to do everything we can — by one path or another. We are committed to bringing them home.”

Meanwhile, experts on the ground in Israel like Ruthie Blum, who serves as senior contributing editor for Jewish News Syndicate, say that Hamas is exploiting the humanitarian situation in Gaza in a desperate attempt to remain in power.

“[Hamas] is stealing the aid and selling it at exorbitant prices to Gazans who need it,” she pointed out during “Washington Watch” Monday. “[T]hey were selling it all along in order to have money to keep their terror machine going. … [A]t the moment, the U.N. [has] something like 900 trucks with food and aid rotting at the Gaza border, and the U.N. refuses to distribute it. Why? Because of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private enterprise of the United States and Israel that has managed to separate Hamas from the civilians of Gaza and direct the food right to those people who need it to keep it away from Hamas, and of course, the U.N. doesn’t want that. Certainly, Hamas doesn’t want it.”

Blum further observed that Hamas’s goal has never been to reach a ceasefire deal, but only to appear to be participating in negotiations and to malign Israel.

“[Hamas initially offered to] release 10 out of the 20 living hostages and … 15 out of the 30 dead hostages, and these talks have been going on for weeks, and Hamas keeps upping the ante,” she noted. “… Its number two demand was that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation be kicked out of Gaza and not distribute food. … [I]f Hamas cared that there’s starvation, why would it want to eliminate the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation? And why would the U.N. want to do it? Because that’s not their aim. Their aim is to starve Gazans, or at least make it look like they’re starving, so that the international community will hop to it and start to say that Israel is being evil. Now, unfortunately, they’re successful at it.”