United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has travelled to Gaza to inspect aid distribution as pressure mounts on Israel over its starvation policy in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, visited aid distribution sites run by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed GHF on Friday.
Condemnation of Israel is growing over famine in Gaza and reports that more than 1,000 desperately hungry Palestinians have been killed since May at the GHF sites.
The diplomats “spent over five hours inside Gaza”, Witkoff said in a post on X, accompanied by a photo of himself wearing a protective vest and meeting staff at a distribution site.
He added that the purpose of the trip was to “help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza”.
But during Witkoff’s visit, medical sources reported that elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli forces killed at least 36 Palestinians seeking aid, including a 12-year-old boy who was reportedly shot dead while he tried to find food for his family.
“We were hopeful about Witkoff’s visit. We were saying, ‘Thank God, maybe he’ll help, maybe he’ll push for a ceasefire,’” local resident Mahmoud Awad told Al Jazeera.
“But instead, the gunfire increased, and there was even more insistence on killing as many young men and children as possible,” he said. “We were hoping for a ceasefire, but instead a child died. Why did the child die?”
At @POTUS’s direction, @USAmbIsrael and I met yesterday with Israeli officials to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Today, we spent over five hours inside Gaza — level setting the facts on the ground, assessing conditions, and meeting with @GHFUpdates and other… pic.twitter.com/aCtLuMuhq1
— Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (@SEPeaceMissions) August 1, 2025
Witkoff’s trip came 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.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 162 people, including 89 children, have died from “famine and malnutrition” since the war began in October 2023.
On Friday, dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Strip, hospital sources said. More than 80 people were also injured.
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, 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 “famine is now unfolding”.
‘War crime’
In a report on Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war a “war crime”.
“Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” said Belkis Wille, the group’s associate crisis and conflict director.
“US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths,” she added.
The rights group called on states to press Israel to immediately stop its use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians and lift its restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza. It also urged the US and Israel to suspend the GHF distribution system.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, Martin Griffiths, the former under-secretary-general of the UN humanitarian affairs office, said GHF’s aid distribution system has turned into a “catastrophe”.
“They are, in fact, under instructions by [the Israeli military]. All of this is a crime. All of this is a deep betrayal of humanitarian values,” said Griffiths, who is now the director of Mediation Group International.
“I think it’s a catastrophe more than a disappointment,” he added. “I think it’s a great sin. I think it’s a great crime.”
The UN’s rights office in the Palestinian territory said at least 1,373 people have been killed seeking aid in Gaza since May 27, including 105 in the last two days of July.
‘Act quickly’ to prevent mass starvation
Meanwhile, 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 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.
On Friday, Wadephul said Germany would provide another $5.7m in aid for the civilian population in Gaza, giving the money to the UN’s World Food Programme.
Germany’s Bundeswehr armed forces started dropping aid supplies over Gaza, starting with two Luftwaffe flights carrying almost 14 tonnes of supplies, according to the German Federal Ministry of Defence. France also started to airdrop 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
“Faced with the absolute urgency, we have just conducted a food airdrop operation in Gaza,” President Emmanuel Macron said on social media platform X on Friday.
“Airdrops are not enough. Israel must open full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine,” he added.
