Trump Yelled At Netanyahu Over Call, Says Report. Israel Calls It Fake

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly had an earful from Donald Trump during a recent phone call, hinting at an unease that appears to have finally peaked as the US President struggles to prove his peacemaking skills.

Trump yelled at Netanyahu when the latter tried to convince the US leader that reports of widespread starvation in Gaza were not real, and were rather Hamas propaganda, reported NBC News. The Israeli PMO has, however, called it fake.

Israel's Gaza campaign has left the narrow strip of land effectively with no means of getting food items, except from the few aid distribution networks still active there. Not just aerial strikes, starvation, and malnutrition have also emerged as dangers for those struggling to stay alive in the war-torn Gaza.

But Netanyahu refuses to buy that.

"There is no policy of starvation in Gaza. And there is no starvation in Gaza," he told an event in Jerusalem on July 27.

Read: Six More Die Of Starvation In Gaza Amid Worsening Humanitarian Crisis

Trump, however, admitted a day later that there is "real starvation" in Gaza and that "you can't fake that". Asked whether Israel was fuelling hunger in Gaza, he said in public that he had seen photos of children who "looked very hungry" and that the "whole place is in a mess".

This prompted Netanyahu to seek a private call with Trump, and it was arranged within hours.

The Israeli PM tried to play down the starvation issue - calling it unreal and a fabrication by Hamas, the report said, citing senior US officials. This angered Trump, and he lashed out at Netanyahu. He interrupted Netanyahu and yelled at him that he does not want to hear that the starvation is fake, the report said.

Trump also reportedly told the Israeli leader that he has been shown proof of children starving in Gaza, during the phone call that has been described by a former US official as "a direct, mostly one-way conversation".

Read: Israeli Hostage Shown Gaza Starvation Footage, Palestinian Islamic Jihad Releases Video

The US President did "most of the talking" during the call, the former official said.

Gaza is witnessing an acute starvation problem as Israel plans to take over the strip and dismantle the remaining Hamas infrastructure.

Though famine has not been declared, two out of three famine thresholds have already been reached - plummeting food consumption and acute malnutrition, according to the United Nations Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) platform.

Israel operates a militarised food distribution programme in Gaza, which, Doctors Without Borders has called an "institutionalised starvation and dehumanization".