President Donald Trump’s special envoy inspected a US-backed food distribution centre in war-torn Gaza on Friday, as the UN rights office reported that Israeli forces had killed hundreds of hungry Palestinians waiting for aid.
The visit by Steve Witkoff came as a report from global advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) also accused Israeli forces of presiding over “regular bloodbaths” close to the US-backed aid points.
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.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, posted on X that he and Witkoff had visited 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!. Hamas hates GHF because it gets food to people without it being looted by Hamas,” Huckabee said.
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.”