Trump envoy visits Gaza amid war of words over 'starvation' claims

Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff inspected a food distribution centre in war-torn Gaza today amid an escalating war of words over 'starvation' claims.

The UN has warned that widespread famine is a looming threat in the besieged strip and claims hundreds of Palestinians have been shot while trying to collect aid near distribution sites. 

But Israel insists that Gaza is not facing starvation and says Hamas is responsible for the looting of aid.

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, posted on X that he and Witkoff had gone to Gaza 'to learn the truth' about the private aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is supported by the United States.

'We received briefings from IDF (the Israeli military) and spoke to folks on the ground. GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!' Huckabee said.

'Hamas hates GHF because it gets food to people without it being looted by Hamas.'

The foundation, on its own X account, posted that it had been a 'privilege and honor' to host Witkoff and Huckabee as the group delivered its 100-millionth meal in Gaza, fulfilling Trump's 'call to lead with strength, compassion and action'.

Witkoff's visit comes as Germany, France, Spain, Jordan, and UAE have joined forces to airdrop supplies into the Palestinian territory. 

France on Friday started to air-drop 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza as it urged Israel to allow full access to the area which it said was slipping into famine.

'Faced with the absolute urgency, we have just conducted a food airdrop operation in Gaza. 

'Thank you to our Jordanian, Emirati, and German partners for their support, and to our military personnel for their commitment,' President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media platform X.

'Airdrops are not enough. Israel must open full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine,' he added.

A global hunger monitor said on Tuesday that a famine scenario was unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with malnutrition soaring, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access severely restricted. 

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot earlier in the day had told broadcaster franceinfo that France was sending four flights carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid each to Gaza from Jordan.

France participated six times in the European humanitarian airlift set up in mid-October 2023 by the European Union to Jordan and Egypt to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, Macron's office said.

The European airlift enabled the organisation of more than 60 flights carrying over 3,350 tons of humanitarian cargo, with most of the donations in-kind transiting through Egypt and Jordan, according to Macron's office.

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Part of this aid has still not entered Gaza due to a lack of agreement from the Israeli authorities, the president's office said.

The UN's rights office in the Palestinian territories said at least 1,373 people had been killed seeking aid in Gaza since May 27 - 105 of them in the last two days of July.

'Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,' the UN office said, breaking down the death toll into 859 killed near the US-backed food sites and 514 along routes used by UN and aid agency convoys.

In its report on the GHF centres on Friday, Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli military of illegally using starvation as a weapon of war.

'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 Human Rights Watch.

'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.'

Responding to the report, the military said GHF worked independently, but that Israeli soldiers operated 'in proximity to the new distribution areas in order to enable the orderly delivery of food'.

It accused Hamas of trying to prevent food distribution and said that it was conducting a review of the reported deaths, adding it worked to 'minimise, as much as possible, any friction between the civilian population' and its forces.

After arriving in Israel on Thursday, Witkoff held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to resolve the almost 22-month-old war, feed desperate civilians and free the remaining hostages held by Palestinian militants.

Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and free the captives, but is under international pressure to end the bloodshed that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and threatened many more with famine, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

Following his discussions with Witkoff, Netanyahu met Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul of Germany, another staunch Israeli ally, who nonetheless delivered a blunt message.

'The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination,' Wadephul told reporters after the meeting, urging the government 'to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality'.

'I have the impression that this has been understood today,' he added.

Meanwhile, Slovenia has become the first country in the European Union to ban all weapons trade with Israel over its war on Gaza.

It said it was moving ahead 'independently' because the EU was 'unable to adopt concrete measures … due to internal disagreements and disunity'.

Amid the devastating war in Gaza, where 'people … are dying because humanitarian aid is systematically denied them', it was the 'duty of every responsible state to take action, even if it means taking a step ahead of others'.

It added that the government had not issued any permits for the export of military weapons and equipment to Israel since October 2023 because of the conflict.