(NewsNation) — As the situation has worsened for humanitarian aid in Gaza, President Trump’s Middle East special envoy, Steve Witkoff, made his way to Israel to discuss the matter and possible solutions.
Joining Witkoff is U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. The two are expected to inspect food distribution in Gaza after international outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths.
Huckabee appeared on “On Balance” on Thursday, saying Israel is receiving too much blame for the matter instead of Hamas.
“There’s been so much misinformation, and a lot of it has been malicious,” he said. “The tragedy is that Israel is getting the blame for the lack of humanitarian care, when the fact is, it’s Hamas that started the war. It was Hamas that murdered 1,200 people and took 250 people hostage.”
This week, Israel paused fighting in parts of Gaza and airdropped food, but aid groups and Palestinians say the changes have only been incremental and are not enough to reverse what some have called the “worst-case scenario of famine” in the territory.
Huckabee argued Hamas “are the ones that are making it very difficult to get food” to Palestinians because they continue to steal and loot the trucks of food coming in from the United Nations source.
As for Israel? They’re doing everything they can, says Huckabee: “They are the ones making it possible to send the food through, whether it’s the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation program; they’ve opened up routes for hundreds of trucks to go in and distribute food.”
The amount of food that piled up, which could feed Gaza for two years, some of the food agencies didn’t want to take it in because they didn’t think it was safe, according to Huckabee.
Huckabee said the Trump administration feels that Israel has gone above and beyond to help in Gaza while also trying to protect civilians.
“Has France, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands or Ireland sent food to Gaza? No, they haven’t,” he said. “Have they sent any volunteers? No, they haven’t. Have they offered to take any refugees from Gaza? Not one. The hypocrisy is glaring.”