Trump Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visits Gaza amid starvation crisis
President Donald Trump‘s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee made an extremely rare visit to Gaza on Friday amid the spiraling hunger crisis in the enclave under Israel’s deadly offensive and aid restrictions.
The pair visited an aid distribution site in Rafah run by the controversial U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has for months overseen the majority of aid distribution in the enclave under a new system launched in May, according to news media in Israel. NBC News has not independently verified that the visit had taken place.
Witkoff and Huckabee were making the trip as part of an effort from Washington to secure a plan to see more food delivered to Palestinians in Gaza as deaths from starvation in the enclave continue to rise, according to the White House.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing Thursday the delegation would be traveling into Gaza to “inspect the current distribution sites” and “meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand” about the “dire situation on the ground.”
It was not clear how arrangements for the visit, including the meetings with local Palestinians in Gaza were being arranged, with Israel having maintained strict control over access to Gaza throughout the war, barring international media and foreign officials from entering the territory independently.
The trip comes as a growing number of Palestinians continue to die from starvation despite months of warnings from humanitarian groups about the impact of Israel’s offensive and the strict aid restrictions it has upheld.
Leavitt said Witkoff and Huckabee would brief Trump “immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region.”
She said more details would be forthcoming once the plan was “approved and agreed on by the president of the United States.”
Their visit to Gaza comes after Witkoff traveled to Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday to address the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave.
It comes days after the world’s leading body on hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, sounded the alarm that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was now unfolding in Gaza.
Trump said earlier this week that “real starvation” was taking place, citing images he had seen on TV in a break with Netanyahu who has denied there is starvation in the enclave and sought to blame Hamas for the crisis.
Israel over the weekend announced it would have “tactical” pauses in military operations and lift some restrictions to allow more aid into the enclave, but aid groups have said there is still not enough aid entering the territory to stave off famine.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
