He’s usually a master of adherence to political messaging, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu let something slip this week.

It wasn’t an admission of fault or guilt for imposing a total humanitarian blockade of Gaza.

It was a concession he’s losing the war of influence, and that some of Israel’s most staunch backers — particularly in the United States — could no longer stomach the consequences of his actions.

“Our greatest friends in the world … come to me and tell me this,” Mr Netanyahu said.

“[They said], ‘We are giving you all the assistance to complete the victory — weapons, support for your moves to eliminate Hamas, protection in the Security Council. There is one thing we cannot stand — we cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger.'”

While bombing raids may be a distant and difficult concept for populations in relatively safe corners of the world to comprehend, the scenes of children jostling and screaming in fear and desperation for whatever morsels of food are available have hit home.

Political goodwill towards Israel, it seems, has finally found its limit, but Netanyahu needs it to continue flowing, so he can persist with his war in Gaza.

Israel was afforded an amount of free rein by the international community as it responded to Hamas’s deadly attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, when about 1,100 people were killed and 250 hostages were taken captive.

And without that free rein, Netanyahu has hinted how the conflict can be brought to an end.

International frustration grows with Bibi

Palestinian leaders and humanitarian organisations have alleged a global empathy deficit over the last 19 months as the war dragged on.

For the last 11 weeks, since Netanyahu announced no aid would be delivered to Gaza in a bid to ratchet up pressure on Hamas to release Israeli hostages, warnings of devastating consequences from aid agencies and doctors have been deafening.

But those forecasts of famine were consistently labelled as Hamas propaganda.

“These are complete lies,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told CNN a fortnight ago.

“You should really take any information that comes from Gaza through Hamas with not a grain of salt, but with a shovel of salt.”

That remains the stated public position of the Israeli government, albeit with a new calculation that some supplies are at “low levels”.

The Israeli government doesn’t allow international media into Gaza, and dismisses news coming out of the strip as biased.

In partially lifting the humanitarian blockade, Netanyahu is trying to allay allies’ concerns and frustrations and keep them onside as he expands military operations in Gaza.

Chief among them, the United States, which supplies Israel with much of its arsenal used in its bombardment of Gaza, and its defence systems to ward off attacks from others in the Middle East.

Even in his own words, Netanyahu is doing the bare minimum to get more supplies into the strip.

It’s already not enough to satisfy the UK, France and Canada, which have condemned the move as “wholly inadequate,” demanding the resumption of all aid deliveries and a halt to his military expansion in Gaza.

That angered Netanyahu, saying it would be a reward for Hamas and terrorism.

Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney are clearly not the ones to whom he’s listening, although the White House is also increasingly frustrated at how their Israeli friends are behaving.

Netanyahu said Israel would let a “basic amount of food” in for the Palestinian population as a stopgap measure, before a new American-backed organisation named the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was up and running.

But Israeli authorities are not being transparent about what that means.

They have not publicly detailed what a “basic amount of food” is, or what sort of calculation is made to underpin the supplies it is delivering.

The Israeli agency responsible for aid delivery in Gaza, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, has refused to respond to the ABC’s questions on the issue.

It means the Israeli government’s political calculation, which involves Palestinian lives, could fall well of short of what aid groups say is necessary.

All the prime minister’s men

While pressure from global partners seemingly prompted this shift in policy from Israel, it’s important to point out the intent from members of the Netanyahu government has been present for many months.

The prime minister is frequently accused of prolonging the war to shore up his own political base, with members of his coalition government agitating for a more aggressive approach in Gaza.

His national security minister, the controversial far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, quit the cabinet in disgust when the January ceasefire and hostage deal was struck.

He returned to his portfolio when Israel resumed its air strikes in Gaza.

The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich has made repeated declarations about the need to “destroy” Gaza, and displace the population there — reneging on repeated threats to quit the ministry too.

At the World Jewish Congress assembly in Jerusalem, the group’s president Ron Lauder bemoaned the situation.

“All the good things that Israel is doing is being destroyed by Smotrich, because his statements about starving the people and destroying [Gaza] are displayed all over the world, and the prime minister has the chance to stop him from saying these things and he will not do it,” Lauder said.