On Monday’s CBS Mornings Plus, co-hosts Vladimir Duthiers and Adriana Diaz brought on Doctors Without Borders U.S. CEO Avril Benoit to promulgate some absurd theories on the war in Gaza.. Discussing the situation of humanitarian aid in the area, all the blame was on Israel as they ignored Hamas’s role in confiscating the aid for themselves, and the correction the Doctors Without Borders head suggested? Countries without borders.
Duthiers set the one-sided scene by trying to tug on heart strings:
The threat of starvation forced thousands to make the long and dangerous trek to Northern Gaza to meet just a handful of aid trucks, many left empty-handed. Those who were lucky enough to get just a sack of flour then had to walk miles back to their families in blistering heat. And it's often the case the youngest pay the biggest price. Malnutrition among children and babies is widespread.
All of this playing out while crates of food intended to provide aid just sit miles away, unreachable on the other side of the border. That's according to more than 100 aid groups. They signed a letter claiming Israeli restrictions are leading to mass starvation.
While there was truth to the claim that resources in Gaza were limited, and that there was indeed need for humanitarian aid, to place the blame solely on Israel’s restrictions in the war-torn region was a gross misrepresentation of the facts.
Of course, the segment did not so much as mention Hamas even once while discussing the humanitarian crisis, such as their confiscation of aid shipments at gun point. Instead, Benoit was rife with criticism of Israel:
What Israel is saying, what the authorities are saying is just not credible. And we have more than 1000 staff, 35 of them international. We are working in several hospitals, clinics, field hospitals. What we are seeing and experiencing on the ground is that there isn't enough food. It's a deliberate strategy of this war to starve people in Gaza, to deprive them of the necessities of life. It's a genocide that is not only withholding food, but also clean drinking water, also the fuel we need to run electricity for hospitals, and medicines, of course.
It’s one thing to place restrictions on aid coming into Gaza. It’s a completely different thing to say Israel was strategically starving civilians, a completely unfounded claim. Never mind that Hamas actively blocked and misappropriated aid, leading to a need for more restrictions.
Instead, Benoit suggested:
Just open up the land borders, allow all the trucks to come in with the food that people need, flood the zone and stop these allegations that are unfounded and where there's just no credible evidence for them.
Which allegations she was referring to was never specified. However, if her reference was to allegations against the idea of opening up Gaza’s borders, the claims were certainly founded. Egypt, for example, expressed concerns over the risk of Hamas dragging the war onto Egyptian soil. And if she meant the allegation that Hamas stole aid shipments, that fact was highly documented.
But instead, Benoit and CBS emphasized the role of Israel in the crisis while entirely disregarding the obvious concerns over the terrorist organization actively interfering with aid.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CBS Mornings Plus
July 28, 2025
9:22 a.m. ESTVLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Welcome back to CBS Mornings Plus. Dozens of aid organizations are raising the alarm about one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, not caused by drought or natural disaster, but by war. In our last segment, Liz Palmer showed us the desperate images from Gaza. This video was shot by the Associated Press. The threat of starvation forced thousands to make the long and dangerous trek to Northern Gaza to meet just a handful of aid trucks, many left empty-handed.
Those who were lucky enough to get just a sack of flour then had to walk miles back to their families in blistering heat. And it's often the case the youngest pay the biggest price. Malnutrition among children and babies is widespread. All of this playing out while crates of food intended to provide aid just sit miles away, unreachable on the other side of the border. That's according to more than 100 aid groups. They signed a letter claiming Israeli restrictions are leading to mass starvation.
Here's Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, talking about the situation in Gaza.
(Cuts to video)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a boldfaced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza. And there is no starvation in Gaza. We enable humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza. Otherwise, there would be no Gazans.
(Cuts to live)
DUTHIERS: So what is the reality on the ground here? With us now is Avril Benoit. She is the CEO of the U.S. branch of Doctors Without Borders. It is one of the groups that cosigned the letter we mentioned. Avril, it's good to see you. So you just heard the Israeli Prime Minister there. He says it's a lie. What's your response?
AVRIL BENOIT: Well, what Israel is saying, what the authorities are saying is just not credible. And we have more than 1,000 staff, 35 of them international. We are working in several hospitals, clinics, field hospitals. What we are seeing and experiencing on the ground is that there isn't enough food. It's a deliberate strategy of this war to starve people in Gaza, to deprive them of the necessities of life. It's a genocide that is not only withholding food, but also clean drinking water, also the fuel we need to run electricity for hospitals, and medicines, of course.
So it's a component strategy that I know, when you look at the airdrops, when you look at a few trucks coming in, you want to have that sense of hope. And I get that because now people are paying attention. They see the starving children, they see the rib cages, they see the sunken cheeks and the hollow eyes, and we all want to believe that there's a turning point now, that finally it's going to work out and people will receive what they need to survive this. But we need to be realistic. It's a drop in the bucket.
These are gestures. They look good on TV. It's good photo op, but it's not what we actually need, which is a sustained cease fire to really be able to scale up the humanitarian assistance that the people need.
ADRIANA DIAZ: So from the people that you have on the ground with Doctors Without Borders, you're being told that it's not enough, this loosening of the aid coming in has not, is not nearly enough for what's needed.
BENOIT: Yeah, that's the consensus across all the credible humanitarian organizations that have people on the ground that feel like this is just a drop in the bucket. It's – we need sustained delivery through the land borders. Just open up the land borders, allow all the trucks to come in with the food that people need, flood the zone and stop these allegations that are unfounded and where there's just no credible evidence for them.
DIAZ: They are opening some borders, right, Egypt and Jordan, but not enough, you're saying?
BENOIT: Yeah, we need a lot more. Yeah.
DUTHIERS: So how is the crisis affecting just your people on the ground that are trying to help?
BENOIT: Well, they're fainting on the job. They're eating once every, one meal maybe every two days. They're scrounging for food. They receive a salary, but there's hardly anything on the market. And what is on the market is totally unaffordable. So even health workers, medics who are in hospital dealing with trauma, surgery with catastrophic burn injuries, children who have lost their limbs, they have to do these complex surgeries and the post-operative care, they're hungry. You know, it's very hard to focus and maintain the stamina to do job like that after 21 months, when you yourself are weakened by a lack of food.
DIAZ: The airdrops that we saw, you mentioned, you know, it does provide this image of hope, but you've you have I read that you said that it's actually a dangerous way to distribute food. Why?
BENOIT: Yeah, it's inefficient and it's often very confusing on the ground. So people will rush to the site where they think that the parachutes are going to drop these huge pallets. We had an incident a few months ago where one of the chutes didn't deploy and a pallet fell on people, killed five of them.
Also, when you have such an unorganized ground reception, people will rush there, it becomes chaotic, then they get shot at. And you know those who are the fittest, the strongest, the men are not the ones necessarily who need the aid the most. So aid organizations, the World Food Program, and others have a lot of experience delivering food assistance in ways where people don't get shot, where they actually – the most vulnerable receive it.
And so that's what we're calling for, not to have airdrops. I mean, of course, any amount of food is welcome in theory, but there are so many more effective humanitarian ways to deliver the food People need.
DIAZ: Avril, thank you so much for being here and telling us what your doctors are seeing on the ground. Appreciate it.
