LONDON: A shouting match broke out between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the latter denied that images of starving children in Gaza were real, NBC News reported.

They reportedly began shouting at each other during a phone call on July 28 over the effectiveness of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, amid reports that civilians were being shot by soldiers and contractors at aid distribution centers, and people were dying of starvation.

The day before, Netanyahu had claimed that there was “no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”

The next day, Trump said he had seen images of starving children. “You can’t fake that,” he said, adding that Gazans were suffering from “real hunger.”

NBC reported that Netanyahu subsequently demanded a call with Trump, during which he told the president that the images of children were fabricated by Hamas.

Trump then reportedly starting shouting at Netanyahu, saying he had seen evidence that the starvation was real.

A former US official told NBC that the call had been a “direct, mostly one-way conversation about the status of humanitarian aid,” and that Trump “was doing most of the talking.”

The former official added: “The US not only feels like the situation is dire, but they own it because of GHF.”

The GHF’s operations in Gaza have featured chaotic scenes with thousands of Palestinians struggling to receive sufficient food aid. More than 1,000 have been killed at its four distribution sites, according to the UN.

Netanyahu’s office described the report of the shouting match as “total fake news.”

A White House spokesperson told NBC: “We do not comment on the president’s private conversations. President Trump is focused on returning all the hostages and getting the people in Gaza fed.”