Hamas to blame for hunger in Gaza: Huckabee

(NewsNation) — As the United Nations secretary general has said Gaza is "on the brink of famine," United States ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israel shouldn't be responsible for feeding them. 

"Look, I would agree that food, water and medicine need to flood in there. But you know who else is hungry in Gaza? The hostages," Huckabee said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America with Hena Doba” on Saturday, as Israel resumed airdrops of food over the area. 

Huckabee and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff spoke with Gazans at an aid site on Friday. 

"They're the ones who are telling us their suffering is caused by Hamas, and they want them gone," Huckabee said of Gazans he spoke with. "They love President Trump, and they think he's the one who's the key to getting some of this resolved and moving forward for a better life for all of them."

The two officials spent over five hours in Gaza and met with the Gaza Health Foundation and other agencies.

“The purpose of the visit was to give @POTUS a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza," Witkoff wrote on social media.

According to the U.N. World Food Program, 1 in 3 people in Gaza are now going days without food, and more than 500,000 are facing famine-like conditions.

"It's tragic what's happening there, but the greatest tragedy of all is that people are blaming Israel," Huckabee said. "Can anyone tell me in the history of mankind, in the history of modern civilization, when a nation that has been attacked and has its citizens massacred, when was it the responsibility of the nation attacked to feed the people who attacked it?"

The war officially began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched attacks on Israel and kidnapped hundreds of people. At least 50 of them are still in Hamas custody, and fewer than half are thought to be alive.