Steve Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy to the Middle East, on Friday visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza, one of three such locations near which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach scarce food supplies.
Witkoff said he spent five hours in Gaza on Friday to better understand the humanitarian situation in the enclave and to relay it to Donald Trump. The US president said earlier this week that there was “real starvation” in Gaza, contradicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims.
“I spoke to Steve Witkoff. He had a great meeting with a lot of people, and the primary meeting was on food,” Trump said early Friday evening. “And he had, he also had some other conversations that I’ll tell you about later, but he had a meeting on getting the people fed, and that’s what we want.”
Along with US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Witkoff visited an aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – one of only three such operational sites in the blockaded enclave.
The GHF was created to sideline the United Nations’ role in distributing aid, after Israel complained that UN aid was reaching Hamas. But the new group has been criticized for failing to improve conditions as Gaza’s starvation crisis deepens.
The UN refused to participate in the new scheme, saying the GHF model violates basic humanitarian principles. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food, hundreds of them near GHF sites, according to the UN. The GHF disputes this.
For two months, the scenes at GHF distribution sites have been chaotic, with the Israeli military seen firing towards scores of Palestinians, some of whom have been crushed in the scramble to reach aid.
Ambassador Huckabee praised GHF after his Gaza visit, saying Hamas “hates” the organization because its food reaches Palestinians in Gaza without reaching Hamas.
Despite Israel’s claims that the UN allowed aid to reach Hamas, an internal US government review found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas of US-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Huckabee also praised GHF for distributing more than 100 million meals to Gaza since it was launched in May. But other aid agencies have warned that this is insufficient. If 100 million meals have been distributed to each of Gaza’s 2.1 million people, that works out at just over one meal a day for 47 days for every resident. The GHF has been operating for nearly 70 days.
A senior Hamas official condemned Witkoff’s trip as little more than a photo opportunity.
“Mr. Witkoff, Gaza is not an animal farm that requires a staged personal visit to take some personal photos in front of the death traps overseen by your American companies,” Basem Naim, a former Palestinian health minister in Gaza, said in a statement shared with CNN.
‘Random gunfire’
Palestinians said that the Israeli military shot at them while they waited to receive food near the same distribution hub visited by Witkoff on Friday.
The nearby Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said it had received at least three people who were killed and six who were injured by gunfire near the hub. It said many other injured people were being treated at a Red Cross field hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it fired warning shots to prevent a group of people advancing toward its troops, after calling on the group to distance itself. The IDF said it was not aware of any casualties as the result of its fire but was investigating the incident.
A US embassy spokesperson also said it had not received “reports of clashes or injuries of any kind in the vicinity of the visit.” CNN has asked the GHF for comment.
Eyewitnesses told CNN the Israeli military shot at people who had gathered at Al Tina, where residents wait before moving on to the distribution site at al-Shakoush.
Abu Armanah, who was being treated for a gunshot wound to his abdomen at Nasser hospital, added: “People are literally battling each other. Witkoff and his visit are nonsense.”
“As soon as Witkoff was in the area, there was random gunfire. The shooting intensified, along with drones and quadcopters in the air, and they started firing at people,” Ahmad Abu Armanah told CNN shortly after the incident. Bodies were “scattered all over the place,” he said.
Mahmoud Awad, another witness, told CNN he was “shocked” by the violence he saw at the hub. “Today was madness,” he said.
“As we arrived, young men started getting shot. There was gunfire, and it was direct,” he said. “We were shocked to hear that the American envoy could come under these conditions.”
Later on Friday night, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that Gaza City’s Al-Quds Hospital received at least 12 people who were killed and 90 others injured after the “targeting of crowds of civilians” by Israeli forces as the civilians were waiting for aid trucks in southwestern Gaza City’s Nabulsi area.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.
Witkoff’s trip to Israel was his second in two weeks. Last week, he abruptly pulled US delegates out of Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar, accusing Hamas of negotiating in bad faith. He said the Trump administration would explore “alternative options” to bring the hostages home and “create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza.” Hamas reportedly later chose to stop engaging in peace talks.
A senior Israeli official said Thursday that Israel and the US are forming a new understanding on Gaza, following Hamas’ reported withdrawal from negotiations.
“An understanding is forming between Israel and the United States that, in light of Hamas’s refusal, there is a need to shift from a framework focused on the release of some of the hostages to one aimed at the release of all hostages, the disarmament of Hamas, and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip,” a senior Israeli official said on Thursday.
“At the same time, Israel and the United States will work to increase humanitarian aid, while continuing military operations in Gaza,” the official added.
Meanwhile, in a Thursday statement, Hamas said it is committed to continuing negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, provided the humanitarian crisis in the enclave improves considerably.
“It is essential to improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation significantly and to obtain a written response from the enemy regarding our response,” Basem Naim, a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, told CNN. “This is a condition to go back to negotiations.”
