US to assess ‘dire situation’ in Gaza as Human Rights Watch calls Israeli killings of people seeking aid a ‘war crime’.
United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, travelled to Gaza to inspect aid distribution as pressure mounts on Israel over its starvation policy in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, 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”.
Friday’s visit was “to learn the truth” about the GHF’s distribution activities, Hucakbee said on X. During the trip, they were briefed by the Israeli military and spoke to “folks on the ground”, he added.
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 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, 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.”
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”.
‘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, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW.
“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.
“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 the director of Mediation Group International.
“I think it’s a catastrophe more than a disappointment,” Griffiths 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 had been killed seeking aid in Gaza since May 27 – 105 of them in the last two days of July.
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.
