US envoy Steve Witkoff to visit aid distribution sites in Gaza to assess ‘dire situation on the ground’: White House
United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will travel to Gaza to inspect aid distribution as pressure mounts on Israel over its starvation policy in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Witkoff will travel to Gaza on Friday with US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to inspect aid distribution as condemnation of Israel grows over famine in Gaza and reports that more than 1,000 desperately hungry Palestinians have been killed since May at food distribution sites operated by the notorious US- and Israeli-backed GHF.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Witkoff would visit “distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”.
“The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” Leavitt said.
The visit by the top US envoy comes a day after more than 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory and health officials reported the deaths of two more children from starvation, adding to the Gaza Health Ministry’s confirmed death toll of 154 people who have died from “famine and malnutrition” – including 89 children – in recent weeks.
Witkoff met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival in the country on Thursday, the Israeli leader’s office said.
Earlier this week, President Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were untrue, with the US leader saying the enclave was experiencing “real starvation”.
The United Nations and independent experts had warned for months that starvation was taking hold in Gaza due to the Israeli military blockade on humanitarian relief, and this week, they said that “famine is now unfolding”.
Angered by Israel’s denial of aid and ongoing attacks on Gaza’s population, the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal this week became the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France will recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September, following Spain, Norway and Ireland’s lead.
Some 142 countries out of the 193 members of the UN currently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state.
Following a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said “the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination”.
“Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality,” he said.
“I have the impression that this has been understood today.”
Once a vibrant centre of Palestinian life, much of Gaza has been pulverised by Israeli bombardments and more than 60,000 Palestinians killed, and almost 150,000 wounded, since October 2023, after the Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people.