The Albany Gazette - US promises Gaza food plan after envoy visit

The visit by Steve Witkoff came as a report from global advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces of presiding over "regular bloodbaths" close to US-backed aid points run by the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The UN human 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 GHF food sites and 514 along routes used by UN and aid agency convoys.

Witkoff said he had spent more than five hours inside Gaza, in a post accompanied by a photograph of himself wearing a protective vest and meeting staff at a GHF distribution centre.

"The purpose of the visit was to give POTUS a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza," he said, referring to Trump.

Trump himself echoed this in a phone call with US news site Axios touting a plan to "get people fed".

"We want to help people. We want to help them live. We want to get people fed. It is something that should have happened long time ago," Trump said, according to Axios.

The US leader repeated Israeli claims that Hamas is responsible for stealing much of the aid that makes it into Gaza, but did not say whether his plan would involve reinforcing GHF or a whole new mechanism, the report said.

The foundation said it had delivered its 100-millionth meal in Gaza during the Gaza visit by Witkoff and US ambassador Mike Huckabee.

"President Trump understands the stakes in Gaza and that feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority. Today he sent his envoy to serve as his eyes and ears on the ground, reflecting his deep concern and commitment to doing what's right," GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay said.

Gaza's civil defence agency said 22 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Friday, including eight who were waiting to collect food aid.

The GHF largely sidelined the longstanding UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza just as Israel was beginning to ease a more than two-month aid blockade that exacerbated existing shortages of food and other essentials.

- 'Beyond imagination' -

In its report on the GHF centres on Friday, Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli military of 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," the watchdog's associate crisis and conflict director, Belkis Wille, said.

"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 the 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 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.

Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and free the remaining hostages seized in its October 2023 attack, but is under international pressure to end the bloodshed that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and threatened many more with famine.

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.

- Hostage video -

The Hamas-led October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 people taken hostage, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military.

The retaliatory Israeli offensive has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry.

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(N.Miller--TAG)