US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, went to Gaza to inspect the distribution of aid while the pressure rises to Israel for his famine policy in the Palestinian territory torn by the war.
Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador to Israel, have visited aid distribution sites led by the controversial and Israeli GHF, supported by the United States and Israeli on Friday.
Israel’s conviction is growing over famine in Gaza and reports that more than 1,000 Palestinians desperately hungry have been killed since May on GHF sites.
Diplomats “spent more than five hours inside Gaza,” said Witkoff in an article on X, accompanied by a photo of himself carrying a protective vest and meeting staff on a distribution site.
He added that the goal of the trip was to “help develop a plan to provide food and medical help to the inhabitants of Gaza”.
But during the visit of Witkoff, medical sources reported that in fact in Gaza, Israeli forces killed at least 36 Palestinians looking for help, including a 12 -year -old boy who would have been killed while he was trying to find food for his family.
“We were hoping for Witkoff’s visit. We said,” Thank God, maybe he will help, maybe he will put pressure on a ceasefire “, a local resident Mahmoud Awad told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“But instead, the shots increased and there was even more insistence to kill as many young men and children as possible,” he said. “We hoped for a ceasefire, but instead, a child is dead. Why is the child dead? “
HAS @Potusmanagement, @Usambisrael And I met Israeli officials yesterday to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Today, we spent more than five hours inside Gaza – in terms of the fields, evaluating the conditions and meeting @Ghfupdates And others … pic.twitter.com/actlumuhq1
– Steve Witkoff Special Envoy (@SepeaCatemissions) August 1, 2025
Witkoff’s trip occurred one day after more than 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory and health officials reported the death of two other children in famine.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 162 people, including 89 children, died of “famine and malnutrition” since the start of the war in October 2023.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the strip, on Friday, said hospital sources. More than 80 people were also injured.
Witkoff met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival in the country on Thursday, said the office of the Israeli leader.
Earlier this week, Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that Hunger reports in Gaza were false, the American chief saying that the enclave felt a “real famine”.
The United Nations and independent experts had warned for months that famine settled in Gaza due to the Israeli military blockade on humanitarian aid, and this week, they said that “famine is now taking place”.
‘War crime’
On Friday, in a report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for the use by Israel of the famine of civilians as a weapon of war a “war crime”.
“Israeli forces deliberately sags from Palestinian civilians, but they now draw them almost every day while they are desperately looking for food for their families,” said Belkis Wille, associate director of the group’s crisis and conflicts.
“Israeli forces and private entrepreneurs supported by the United States have set up a defective militarized aid distribution system that has transformed aid distributions into regular blood baths,” she added.
The rights defending group called on States to press Israel to immediately stop its use of deadly force against Palestinian civilians and to raise its restrictions at the entrance to the aid to Gaza. He also urged the United States and Israel to suspend the GHF distribution system.
Addressing Tel Aviv Tribune on Friday, Martin Griffiths, the former subsecretary general of the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office, said that the GHF aid distribution system has become a “disaster”.
“They are in fact under instructions by (the Israeli army). All of this is a crime. All this is a profound betrayal of humanitarian values,” said Griffiths, who is now a mediation group Group International.
“I think it’s a disaster more than a disappointment,” he added. “I think it’s a great sin. I think it’s a big crime. “
The United Nations Rights Office on Palestinian territory said that at least 1,373 people had been killed by asking for help from Gaza since May 27, including 105 in the last two days of July.
‘Act quickly’ to prevent mass famine
Meanwhile, anger by the denial of help from Israel and the ongoing attacks against the population of Gaza, the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal this week have become the last Western governments to announce plans to recognize a Palestinian state.
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France would recognize Palestine in the United Nations General Assembly in September, after the advance of Spain, Norway and Ireland.
Some 142 countries out of the 193 UN members recognize or currently plan to recognize a Palestinian state.
After a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul said: “The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond the imagination.
“Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass famine from becoming a reality,” he said.
Wadephul said on Friday that Germany would provide additional aid of $ 5.7 million to the civilian population in Gaza, giving money to the World UN World Program.
The German Bundeswehr armed forces began to abandon the assistance supplies on Gaza, starting with two flights from the Luftwaffe carrying nearly 14 tonnes of supplies, according to the Federal Ministry of German Defense. France has also started to ventilate 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
“Faced with the absolute emergency, we have just carried out an air-food air operation in Gaza,” said President Emmanuel Macron on the social media platform X Friday.
“Ardrops are not enough. Israel must open full humanitarian access to respond to the risk of famine,” he added.