Trump Witkoff’s envoy visits the controversial aid distribution site in Gaza

The Middle East of the United States Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, has visited a controversial and supported by the United States in Gaza.

Witkoff said the goal of traveling to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) site was to give Trump a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help develop a plan to provide food and medical aid to the inhabitants of Gaza “.

The visit follows daily reports of fatal shootings at GHF points, the United Nations reporting at least 859 Palestinians killed near the sites – a figure that GHF rejects.

Israel says that his troops only pulled warning shots and that they do not intentionally draw civilians.

International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel to enter independently from Gaza, which makes it difficult to verify complaints.

The BBC understands that Witkoff visited one of the GHF sites near Rafah in the south of Gaza on Friday.

He was accompanied by the American ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Israeli Defense forces (FDI).

Publishing on x after, alongside photos of their visit, Witkoff said: “Today, we spent more than five hours in Gaza – in terms of facts in the field, assessing the conditions and meeting @GHFUPDATES and other agencies.”

Huckabee said they had received “FDI briefings and spoke to people on the ground”.

He said GHF sites delivered “over one million meals a day”, calling him an “incredible feat”.

The GHF said that it had delivered 1.3 million meals to three distribution sites on Thursday. He has not yet published figures for Friday. The UN indicates that the number of meals provided by the GHF does not become global nutritional needs.

The United Nations agencies have repeatedly warned that artificial mass famine takes place in the territory.

Some Gazans who spoke at the BBC denounced Witkoff’s visit as a “media stroke”.

Louay Mahmoud, who lives in Gaza, said: “Steve Witkoff will not see hunger, only the story that Israel wants him to see.

“This visit is a hollow media cascade, not a humanitarian mission. It does not come from solutions, only discussion points designed to polish the image of an accomplice administration of our suffering.”

Amer Khayrat, a father of two children who live in Gaza City, said: “What Gaza needs is not another envoy with a press team. We need the seat, the attack on the attack has stopped and the American blind support for this war ended.”

The director of peace and security of the Oxfam Americas, Scott Paul, said that Witkoff and Huckabee during their visit would have been “confronted with scenes of countless Palestinian children and their families on the edge of the famine moved to flattened communities outside their convoy windows”.

He added: “It must be what finally stimulates the United States to use its full influence to put an end to this disaster before passing the point of no return.”

The former head of the American State Department Annelle Sheline, who resigned from his role in the protest of Joe Biden’s policies to Gaza last year, said that the visit of Witkoff and Huckabee was a “glorified photo shoot, intended to obscure the reality of a disastrous humanitarian crisis that America has helped to author”.

A retired special forces officer who worked in GHF centers told the BBC last week that he had witnessed Tscuetes troops and American entrepreneurs who drew on crowds of Palestinians near the sites he worked.

Lieutenant Col Anthony Aguilar, a veteran special forces of the American army green berets, said that he had never witnessed such a level of “brutality and use of the indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an inarme and hungry population” in all his career.

The GHF called the allegations of Aguilar “categorically false”, describing it as a “former unhappy entrepreneur who was dismissed for misconduct”, which he denies.

On Friday, the Human Right Watch campaign group (HRW) accused Israeli forces and entrepreneurs supported by the United States of having created “a defective militarized aid distribution system which transformed the distribution of aid into regular blood baths”.

The HRW called on the Israeli authorities “to immediately stop using the deadly force as control of the crowd against Palestinian civilians” and called on the United States and Israel to suspend the operation.

GHF assistance sites replaced the United Nations distribution mechanism in May, arousing international outrage. Israel accused Hamas of looting the UN, an accusation of Hamas denies.

There are four GHF sites, which are located inside Israeli military areas and are operated by American private security entrepreneurs.

Eye witnesses and doctors have repeatedly described the Israeli forces that open fire on crowds near the aid points.

The FDIs said that 126 aid packages were broadcast in Gaza on Friday by seven different countries – Belgium, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, France, Spain and Germany.

Help agencies say that much more should be authorized by the land and have warned that Airdrops cannot provide the necessary help quality.

The United Nations Human Rights Office (OCHR) said on Thursday that at least 1,373 Palestinians had been killed when they were trying to obtain food aid in Gaza. Among these, 859 were killed near the GHF sites, he said.

The OCHR said that most had been killed by the Israeli army, and although they were aware of other armed groups in the same area, it added that they “did not have information indicating their involvement in these killings”.

The office said that he had “no information that these Palestinians participated directly in hostilities or laid down a threat to Israeli security forces”.

Israel accused Hamas of prompting chaos near help sites. The GHF rejected the UN figures when it was approached for comment by the BBC.

Meanwhile, at least 10 people were killed in the south and the center of Gaza since dawn on Friday, according to the civil defense agency managed by Hamas.

The figure includes eight people who were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes targeting tents housing inappropriate people – in Khan Younis in the South and Deir Al -Balah in the center of the band, the agency said.

Two others were killed and at least 20 others injured when Israeli forces opened fire near a help distribution point along the Morag corridor, north of Rafah, added the civil defense.

Local residents said hundreds of people gathered to get food at the start of the shooting.

The BBC approached the Israeli army to comment.

Friday 82 people had been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, of which 52 people were reportedly killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours.

Witkoff met on Thursday, Witkoff met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel for what was described by an American spokesperson as “productive” talks.

There have been discussions on a major reformulation of ceasefire negotiations, according to Israeli media reports, which include an “all-in” agreement that would see all the hostages held by Hamas published in a single exchange, in addition to the complete disarma of Hamas. Previously, the hostages had to be released in phases.

Hamas said he would not return to the table as long as more aid is authorized in Gaza to tackle famine.

The United States and Israel withdrew from the cease-fire talks last week, accusing Hamas of lacking coordination and not negotiating in good faith.

Hamas has accused the Israeli side of intransigence on the main collage points in the negotiations.