Trump Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visits Gaza amid starvation crisis
President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and the United States ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee made an extremely rare visit to Gaza on Friday in the middle of the spiral crisis in the enclave under the deadly restrictions of Israel and aid.
The pair visited a Rafah aid distribution site managed by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation controversial and supported by the United States, which for months supervises the majority of the aid distribution in the enclave in the context of a new system launched in May, according to the media in Israel. NBC News did not check independently that the visit had taken place.
Witkoff and Huckabee were traveling as part of an effort by Washington to get a plan to see more food delivered to the Palestinians in Gaza like deaths of famines in the enclave continue to increase, according to the White House.
The press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said during a press briefing on Thursday that the delegation would go to Gaza to “inspect the current distribution sites” and “meet local Gazans to hear first” on the “disastrous situation on the field”.
It was not clear how the arrangements for the visit, including meetings with local Palestinians in Gaza, were organized, Israel having maintained strict control over access to Gaza throughout the war, prohibiting international media and foreign leaders from entering the territory independently.
The trip occurs a growing number of Palestinians continue to die from famine despite months of warning of humanitarian groups on the impact of the Israeli offensive and the strict aid restrictions that it has confirmed.
Leavitt said Witkoff and Huckabee would inform Trump “immediately after their visit to approve a final food plan and help distribution in the region.”
She said more details would be coming once the plan has been “approved and agreed by the President of the United States”.
Their visit to Gaza comes after Witkoff went to Israel and met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in Jerusalem to address the disastrous humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave.
It comes a few days after the first world body on hunger, the integrated classification of the food security phase, or IPC, sounded the alarm that the “worst scenario of famine” now took place in Gaza.
Trump said earlier this week that the “real famine” took place, citing images he had seen on television in a break with Netanyahu who denied that there was famine in the enclave and sought to blame Hamas for the crisis.
Israel during the weekend announced that he would have taken a “tactical” break in military operations and would have raised certain restrictions to allow more aid to the enclave, but the aid groups said that there was still not enough help to enter the territory to avoid famine.
It is a story in development. Please check the updates.
