Gov. Shapiro says U.S. has ‘moral obligation’ to get food to starving Gaza residents

Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday that the United States has a “moral obligation” to make sure that starving Gaza residents get the aid they need to survive.

While saying that the terrorist group Hamas needs to release the nearly 50 hostages it still holds, Shapiro said he also wants food to make its way to Gaza.

“The fact that kids are starving in Gaza is not OK. It is not OK,” Shapiro said in response to a reporter’s question, “and I think everyone has a moral responsibility to figure out how to feed these kids.”

Josh Shapiro weighs in on Israel-Gaza.
Hits Netanyahu, calls for return of the hostages, condemns children starving in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/1uiDao2hNO

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) August 5, 2025

Shapiro, who is Jewish, made lengthy comments about Gaza while visiting Overlook Park in Lancaster County to spotlight the state Office of Vocational Rehabilitation’s MY Work program, which provides job opportunities for young people with disabilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied that there is a famine afflicting Gaza, a stance Shapiro called “wrong.”

Shapiro said he is “praying for the return of the hostages and praying to make sure that these kids get fed in Gaza.”

The governor said Hamas is intercepting aid to Gaza and the distribution network “is not as sophisticated as it needs to be,” but the United States has a “moral responsibility to flood the zone with aid and ensure that food and medicine make it to residents.”

“So, my hope is these hostages come home immediately, that the war ends, these children be fed, and I think the United States of America has a moral obligation to see to it that they get the aid that they need,” Shapiro said.

As for Netanyahu’s comments that there is no famine in Gaza, Shapiro said he is “wrong” and that stance, as well as going along with President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Gaza residents and make the region the “Riviera of the Middle East,” are not helpful.

“I think that is not only reckless language, but what it does is, it further isolates Israel in the world, and that’s a dangerous place for Israel to be,” said Shapiro.

NBC News reported in early July that Trump dropped his plans on Gaza because of little regional support.

However, Trump and Netanyahu met at the White House in July, and Netanyahu said Israel was seeing “great cooperation” from its neighbors to accept Palestinian refugees, NBC News said in the same report.

Shapiro said that Netanyahu’s rhetoric “only creates less stability and security for Israel, which is a critical ally of the United States, whose democracy is important … that it be present and flourish in the Middle East.”

Trump decided to negotiate directly with Hamas months ago, Shapiro said.

“If he believes that he’s got this opportunity to dialogue with Hamas because he broke that norm of not negotiating with terrorists, then he damn well better be on the phone with Hamas trying to figure out how to get aid in there to the starving people, and not have Hamas intercept it,” said the governor.