This week, as several New York elected officials recently commented publicly on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, including their thoughts on the hunger situation in the region, we asked readers for their opinions on the matter.

Israeli officials deny there is starvation in Gaza, alleging some reports that included images of emaciated children were manipulated by the media and that those children have medical conditions causing them to look emaciated. They further allege there were no restrictions imposed on U.N. aid trucks from entering Gaza, and that it is Hamas which is preventing aid from reaching Palestinians by stealing it and selling it at higher prices.

The New York Times recently issued a correction in relation to one published image of an emaciated child who reportedly had a medical condition. Nonetheless, doctors on the ground confirm a hunger crisis is prevalent and that doctors themselves are both under attack and getting thinner. There have also been plenty of images of Palestinians scrambling desperately for food at food sites in the region and of food trucks being completely overwhelmed by the scale of the need for food.

Cindy McCain, wife of the late former Republican U.S. presidential candidate and veteran John McCain, who is executive director of the World Food Program, talked about northern Gaza being on the brink of famine one year ago. She talked about this again in recent weeks during a CNN interview, saying the U.N. has vast experience in delivering aid in war zones but needs safe access with no delays to deliver the aid. Others have also said security is a concern amid reports of IDF soldiers shooting at civilians and aid workers at distribution sites.

In recent days, despite previously saying there was no blockade, Israeli officials have paused some military blockades to allow aid to enter the zone during certain hours.

A REPORT BY ITV News in which a British doctor talks about the situation on the ground in Gaza. Video courtesy of ITV via YouTube

Additionally, despite Israeli officials saying there was no hunger crisis, they recently began limited airdrops of food over the region. Meanwhile, international humanitarian organizations like the U.N. say such airdrops are insufficient to meet the scale of the crisis.

It’s also been reported that some Israeli settlers have blocked aid trucks from delivering food to Gaza, saying they don’t want it to reach Hamas, while Israeli organization B’selem says the policies of the Netanyahu administration amount to genocide. While some aid organizations concede it’s possible Hamas may have pilfered some food from aid trucks amid the chaos, various media reports found no evidence of widespread, organized theft.

Meanwhile, at least three attempts by a coalition of international civilians trying to get food and other aid into Gaza by sea as part of the Freedom Flotilla movement have been thwarted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who cited the prevailing blockade as their rationale for stopping the Flotillas. Simultaneously, the IDF alleged no such blockade was in effect.

The Israeli Defense minister also reportedly alleged the Flotilla was “assisting terrorist organizations.” The Flotilla representatives said they only had aid, food, including baby formula, and medicine aboard their vessel.

One U.S. security contractor recently described how he and others were able to order 27 Dominos Pizzas via a local Israeli food delivery service into Gaza, even as UN aid trucks remained blocked at the border.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, July 31, it was reported that Hamas had released distressing images and video of emaciated Israeli hostage Evyatar David who said he was being asked to dig his own grave from inside a tunnel.

According to the United States government, it spent $6.8 billion in tax payer dollars / foreign aid for Israel in 2024. Accumulatively, the U.S. has spent $300 billion on Israel between 1946 and 2024. It spent $21.4 billion on Ukraine in 2024. On Aug. 7, the U.S. announced a full military takeover of Gaza.

“America should only do what it needs to do regarding the protection of Israel. Somebody needs to use their brain because it doesn’t make sense what’s happening.”

O.M.

Fordham Manor

“In terms of what I think is going on, I think it’s an imperialist war. I think the people of Gaza are being starved intentionally. You have food trucks waiting outside the borders of Gaza, and they’re not being let in or if they are, it’s in very select distribution centers where they shoot at starving people. It’s a travesty.”

Luke Foster,

Van Cortlandt Village

“Gaza is a worldwide failure due to inaction. Funny how some Jewish voices are listened to, while others are not. Why? I prefer to listen to the voices of my Jewish educators in The Bronx that shaped my critical thinking, provoked my empathy, and shaped my morality with history and books.”

Aixa Rodriguez,

Fordham

“It’s unheard of that in 2025 that this is allowed to continue. Israel and its Zionist political regime are totally to blame for its genocide of Palestinians. The starvation of children, the premeditated acts of sniper shootings on children, women and elders on their way to food distribution sites is calculated with every intent of disregard to international law.

[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu needs to be brought to trial by the ICC [International Criminal Court] alongside his ministers. The United States Senate and our district’s U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres [NY-15] who receives AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) contributions, are in total complicity and they remain silent on these atrocities.”

Aldo Rafael Perez,

Riverdale via Norwood

“It breaks my heart to see these images of starving children on my TV each night, and all sides just point fingers at each other. It’s time for the world’s leaders to step up and take action and do something to stop this madness.”

Melissa Lori,

Brooklyn

Editor’s Note: On July 30, Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY-15) said, “The free world has a moral responsibility to Palestinians in distress. Flood Gaza with food.” On July 31, he wrote, “The international community’s righteous anger about the plight of Palestinians (ultimately at the hands of a war that Hamas began) is matched only by its unrighteous amnesia about October 7th and the plight of the hostages, who have been held by Hamas in captivity for 663 days.”

On Aug. 2, with accompanying photos of an emaciated Israeli hostage, he wrote, “The world’s silence about the deliberate starvation of Israeli hostages—at the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad—is as deafening as its hypocrisy. Expect the images of emaciated Israeli bodies, starved in captivity, to appear nowhere in the pages of most major American newspapers. A humanitarianism that devalues Jewish life is no humanitarianism at all, for it has been hollowed out by antisemitism.”

On Aug. 4, the congressman also tweeted, along with an accompanying NY Post article showing the emaciated body of an Israeli hostage, “Hamas has held Evyatar David captive for nearly 700 days. In a visibly starved and skeletal state, he was then forced to dig his own grave. Without a shred of shame, Hamas released video footage of its emaciated hostages, knowing full well that the world, so selective in its outrage, will respond with little more than thunderous silence.“ 

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.