Trump’s Envoy Visits Gaza Aid Sites as Israel Slammed for Starvation Policy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has travelled to Gaza to inspect aid distribution as pressure mounts on the Israeli regime over its starvation policy in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, visited aid distribution sites in Gaza on Friday, Israeli media reported. Condemnation of Israel is growing over famine in the Strip 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.
On Friday, 15 more people were killed across the Strip, including five aid seekers, hospital sources said. More than 70 people were also injured while waiting for food supplies near the Morag Corridor south of Khan Younis, according to an Al Jazeera Arabic report.
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”.
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, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW, Al Jazeera reported.
“US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths,” she added.
The rights group called on states to press the Israeli regime 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 that the US and Israel suspend the GHF distribution system.
