Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff visits Gaza aid ‘death trap'
Witkoff, the US president's special envoy for the Middle East, had earlier met Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu amid mounting international horror over conditions of starvation in Gaza occurring after months of Israeli-imposed aid restrictions.
The visit to the site in Rafah by Witkoff – a former real estate lawyer with no foreign policy or humanitarian background, who has also met Vladimir Putin on Trump's behalf – was first reported by a number of Israeli media organisations. His visit comes as Human Rights Watch described the aid sites run by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as 'death traps' that had become the scene of regular 'bloodbaths'. The UN has said almost 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces attempting to reach the sites.
Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch said on Friday: '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.'
'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,' Wille added in a statement.
The UN said on Friday that 1353 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces as they waited for aid, 859 around GHF sites and another 514 along the route of UN aid convoys.
Speaking on Friday, a UN spokesperson said Israeli policies had led to the widespread desperation in Gaza that meant arriving UN trucks were overwhelmed and stripped before they could reach warehouses.
The UN says that longstanding Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid had created an unpredictable environment, and that meant while a pause in fighting might allow more aid in, Palestinians are not confident aid will reach them.
'This has resulted in many of our convoys offloaded directly by starving, desperate people as they continue to face deep levels of hunger and are struggling to feed their families,' said Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
'The only way to reach a level of confidence is by having a sustained flow of aid over a period of time,' she said.
While a number of countries have resumed airdrops of aid into Gaza in recent days, aid experts have warned that the amount of food that can be dropped by air is insufficient to counter starvation inside the Palestinian territory.
Israeli officials have said that if there is no progress in the coming days on a deal with Hamas to release the hostages, Israel will expand its operations in Gaza.
International humanitarian agencies and experts say that famine has gripped Gaza after Israel blocked food from entering the territory for two and a half months starting in March.
Sign up to First Thing
Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
Since it eased the blockade in late May, Israel has only allowed in a trickle of aid trucks for the UN, about 70 a day on average, according to Israel's own figures.
That is far below the 500-600 trucks a day that UN agencies say are needed – the amount that entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year.
While Netanyahu and other officials have claimed that there is 'no hunger in Gaza' or that it is the fault of Hamas looting or the UN's failings, incontrovertible evidence has been offered by the UN's food security monitor of the spread of famine amid Israel's choking of the entry of aid – a policy critics say amounts to the crime of using starvation as a weapon.
According to the White House, the visit by Witkoff, accompanied by US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, was aimed at finding ways to speed deliveries to Gaza.
'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,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Trump on Thursday called the situation in Gaza 'a terrible thing' when asked about comments from his ally and Republican US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who termed Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory a genocide.
'Oh, it's terrible what's occurring there, yeah, it's a terrible thing. People are very hungry,' Trump told reporters when asked about Greene's social media comments. Trump also noted financial assistance by Washington to address the hunger crisis in Gaza.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Elon Musk staged secret $15M plot to desperately win back Trump after falling out
Elon Musk attempted a peace offering with Donald Trump after the ex-'First Buddy' split from the White House, giving $15million to Trump and Republican causes. The donations were made after the former DOGE chairman's ugly feud with Trump upon his departure, but before Musk announced plans to launch the independent 'America Party.' Musk gave $5million to three different super PACs supporting both the president and his party. According to Federal Election Commission filings, he gave to MAGA Inc., the Senate Leadership Fund and the Congressional Leadership Fund on June 27. Just eight day later, Musk launched the 'America Party,' which he said was formed 'to give you back your freedom.' Musk has donated $45 million in 2025 to his own America PAC which was largely spent on an unsuccessful Wisconsin Supreme Court election. The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment. Musk announced the foundation of the America Party on his X social media platform just after Independence Day. It came after Musk created an online poll on July 4 asking his followers whether to establish the new party. The results came back 65.4 percent in favor, leading Musk to make the announcement. 'By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!' Musk wrote. 'When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. 'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' Musk had been elevated to a prestigious role within the White House acting as a special advisor to the president and overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency. But in recent months a rift has emerged and the two former friends have been embroiled in embarrassing public spats played out over social media. Many had predicted that Trump and Musk's rosy bromance wouldn't last long and some pointed to betting markets on when they would turn on each other. Betters heavily favored a fallout before July 1, 2025, less than six months after Musk joined Trump's administration as a special advisor. In just a matter of months Musk went from spending $288 million for Trump's election campaign, to slinging insults about him online, including suggesting Trump was in The Epstein files. The bust up occurred after Musk stepped down from DOGE over Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' which ends tax breaks for electric vehicles, which are Tesla CEO Musk's passion project. Musk also argued that the bill undercut DOGE's cost-cutting efforts by increasing the deficit. The rift deepened after the president rescinded his nomination offer to Musk-ally Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator over donations he made to the Democrats. Since then Trump and Musk have engaged in public mudslinging against each other. Musk accused the president of ingratitude and claimed he would have lost the election without him, while Trump branded him 'crazy '. Since their public break-up, Musk has threatened to start a new, third political party and buttress the reelection campaign of Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the no votes on Trump's big bill. Trump recently outed himself as the person who leaked details about Musk's alleged drug use, according to author Michael Wolff, who penned the eye-popping book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. The New York Times reported that during the 2024 presidential campaign, the billionaire used so much ketamine he was having bladder problems and also used Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and what appeared to be Adderall.
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Wong criticises Israel's conduct in Gaza in closed-door meeting with Israeli ambassador
In a private meeting with Israel's ambassador to Australia, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, criticised Israel's conduct in Gaza and called for it to urgently comply with international law and increase the supply of food to Palestinians. Wong's Thursday meeting with Amir Maimon was requested by the Israeli embassy, according to federal government sources, and took place inside Wong's office at Parliament House in Canberra. The meeting was held days after Australia joined 27 other countries in condemning Israel for denying humanitarian aid to Palestinians. At the time, Wong said the decision to sign the statement reflected the 'concern' and 'distress' Australians felt from seeing the images of starving Palestinians in Gaza. Sign up: AU Breaking News email The Thursday discussion followed another meeting between Maimon and lower-level foreign affairs officials in Canberra earlier in the week, as reported by the Nine Newspapers. Australian sources said Wong repeated her public criticism of Israel's conduct in Gaza during the meeting with Maimon. This included a request for Israel to comply with international law and ensure enough food was being provided to Palestinians. Wong's office declined to comment on the meeting, and the Israeli embassy has been contacted for comment. Before both meetings took place, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, accused Israel of 'clearly' breaching international law and said Benjamin Netanyahu's government was 'losing support' internationally. After those comments, Wong said: 'It is forbidden to withhold aid from civilians, that is not consistent with international law, but actually, just as importantly, it's morally the wrong thing to do.' Earlier in the week, a select group of journalists attended a briefing at the Israeli embassy where Israel's deputy ambassador, Amir Meron, reportedly said: 'We don't recognise any famine or any starvation in the Gaza Strip.' In response, Albanese said that statement was 'beyond comprehension' and raised concerns about Israel restricting journalists from visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory. Dozens of Palestinians have died of hunger in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by the UN and other humanitarian organisations to Israel's blockade of almost all aid into the territory. Two Israeli-based rights groups this week declared that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, with reports citing evidence including the weaponisation of hunger. B'tselem described an 'official and openly declared policy' of mass starvation. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion On Wednesday, Australia joined 14 other countries in describing the recognition of Palestine as 'an essential step towards the two-state solution', linking progress on statehood to the upcoming United Nations general assembly meeting in September. But Albanese also criticised calls for further actions against Israel as 'slogans' as he faced intensifying pressure from his MPs, Labor members and the Greens to reconsider his position on the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He has so far stopped short of matching his UK counterpart Keir Starmer's promise to recognise the state of Palestine in September unless Israel abides by a ceasefire and commits to a two-state solution. 'What I've said is that it's not the timeline, that's not what we're looking at. What we're looking at is the circumstances where recognition will advance the objective of the creation of two states,' Albanese said on Wednesday, a day before Wong met Maimon.
The Guardian
41 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: ‘credibility' of US economics data at risk, say experts, as president fires labor official
After Donald Trump ordered the firing of a federal government official in charge of labor statistics, experts and opposition politicians have expressed alarm that the 'credibility' of US economic data was at risk. The US president claimed without evidence that Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, had 'rigged' job numbers 'in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad', after data showed jobs growth stalled this summer, prompting accusations that the president was 'firing the messenger'. Bill Beach, a former Heritage Foundation economist who was picked by Trump in 2018 to oversee labor statistics, denounced what he called the 'totally groundless firing'. 'Politicizing economic statistics is a self-defeating act,' said Michael Madowitz, the principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute's Roosevelt Forward, who added that 'credibility is far easier to lose than rebuild, and the credibility of America's economic data is the foundation on which we've built the strongest economy in the world'. Senate Democrat Ron Wyden said 'this is the act of somebody who is soft, weak and afraid to own up to the reality of the damage his chaos is inflicting on our economy'. The move came as markets around the world were roiled by Trump's latest tariff announcement, which left more than 60 countries scrambling to secure trade deals. Here are the key US politics stories of the day: Donald Trump ordered the firing of the federal government official in charge of labor statistics, hours after data revealed jobs growth stalled this summer, prompting accusations that he was 'firing the messenger'. The US president claimed that Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, had 'faked' employment figures in the run-up to last year's election in an effort to boost Kamala Harris's chances of victory. Trump later claimed: 'Today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.' He produced no evidence for these allegations and insisted that the US economy was, in fact, 'BOOMING' on his watch. Read the full story Donald Trump has said that he deployed nuclear-capable submarines to the 'appropriate regions' in response to a threatening tweet by Russia's former president Dmitry Medvedev, suggesting that he would be ready to launch a nuclear strike as tensions rise over the war in Ukraine. In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump wrote that he had decided to reposition the nuclear submarines because of 'highly provocative statements' by Medvedev, noting he was now the deputy chair of Russia's security council. Medvedev had earlier said that Trump's threats to sanction Russia and a recent ultimatum were 'a threat and a step towards war'. Read the full story Donald Trump unleashed global chaos with sweeping new tariff rates, triggering a wave of market jitters and fears for jobs in some of the poorest countries, as rates were signed off ranging from 10% to 50%. There was a minor reprieve that opened the door to further negotiations, after the White House said the updated tariffs would take effect on 7 August, not on Friday, the deadline previously set by Trump. Read the full story Donald Trump called on top Federal Reserve officials to seize control from its chair, Jerome Powell, if he fails to cut interest rates, stepping up his extraordinary attacks on the central bank's independence. The US president called Powell 'a stubborn MORON' in a series of critical social media posts on Friday, days after the Fed held rates steady for the fifth consecutive time. Read the full story Americans are struggling financially, grappling with debt and the rising cost of living, and are blaming the Trump administration and corporate interests for worsening economic outlooks for working families, according to a new poll. Read the full story A new Trump administration report that attempts to justify a mass rollback of environmental regulations is chock-full of climate misinformation, experts say. Read the full story The US economy added 73,000 jobs in July, far lower than expected, amid ongoing concerns over Donald Trump's escalating trade war. Poverty and hunger will rise as a result of the Trump administration's unprecedented cuts to the US federal 'food stamps' program, according to experts. Low-income workers who rely on the aid are braced for dire consequences. California's governor, Gavin Newsom, may call a special election in November to begin the process of redrawing the state's congressional maps in response to Texas's plans to change its own maps to help Republicans keep their majority in the House of Representatives. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's associate who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes, has been transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a lower-security facility in Texas, the US Bureau of Prisons said on Friday. Kamala Harris has said she currently has no desire to re-enter 'the system' of American politics because it is 'broken'. Sixteen states are suing the Trump administration to defend transgender youth healthcare access, which has rapidly eroded across the US due to threats from the federal government. Catching up? Here's what happened 31 July 2025.
