At the start of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in October, Donald Trump loudly presented himself as the key US ally’s ultimate champion.

But six months and more than 33,000 deaths in Gaza later, the Republican White House hopeful has become increasingly vague on the intensity of that support. The former US president, not usually known for biting his tongue on any given topic, has only halfheartedly commented on the issue in two recent interviews.

“I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it,” he told a conservative radio host on Thursday about Israel’s offensive.

And in an exchange with Israeli media, Trump warned that videos “of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza” offer “a very bad picture for the world”. “Israel is absolutely losing the PR war,” the 77-year-old told radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Despite allusions to his concerns, Trump has not explicitly mentioned the humanitarian crisis in Gaza — where experts warn a famine is looming — the Palestinian civilian death toll or the seven aid workers killed on Monday by an Israeli drone strike.

But it’s not clear whether the billionaire’s shift in tone since the escalation in Gaza would correlate to any real change in policy, if he were to be elected president again in November.