Washington — U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are heading to Gaza on Friday to survey food and aid distribution sites and meet with people living there, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Their visit is prompted by a dire humanitarian crisis, as children and adults in Gaza are struggling to survive off insufficient food and the death toll for people trying to get aid in Gaza mounts. President Trump said earlier this week that the U.S. and Israel will partner to run new food centers in the region, but he said Israel would preside over the centers to “make sure the distribution is proper.”
Leavitt said Witkoff and Huckabee have been in Israel meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders about the situation in Gaza. Netanyahu has said, incorrectly, that there is “no starvation” in Gaza, despite emerging photos of emaciated children and repeated warnings from food security experts.
“President Trump is a humanitarian with a big heart,” Leavitt said during Thursday’s White House press briefing. “And that’s why he sent special envoy Witkoff to the region in an effort to save lives and end this crisis. Tomorrow, special envoy Witkoff and Ambassador Huckabee will be traveling into Gaza to inspect to the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food, and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground. The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region.”
Leavitt said the administration will provide more details once the president approves a plan. She also said the meetings Witkoff and Huckabee have had with Netanyahu and other leaders have been productive.
Mr. Trump earlier this week contradicted Netanyahu’s assessment denying grave hunger in Gaza. The U.S. president said the children in Gaza “look very hungry.”
“There is real starvation in Gaza — you can’t fake that,” he told reporters.
Also at issue is the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private food distribution organization that has faced heavy criticism for its food delivery methods and the number of people who have been killed trying to reach its distribution sites in Gaza.
The U.S. and Israel have both supported the relatively new GHF to deliver aid in Gaza over the United Nations. A group of Democratic senators, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, is urging the Trump administration to “immediately cease all U.S. funding for GHF and resume support for the existing UN-led aid coordination mechanisms with enhanced oversight to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need,” the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“The United States of America supports GHF, but we would support any other mechanism that delivers food and the other needs of the Gazan people in a safe, secure fashion that does not get manipulated or distorted or taken advantage of by Hamas, the official said, adding, “I’d like to think that some of the NGOs that are not succeeding right now would turn to GHF and say, let’s work together for the sake of the Gazans in Gaza.”
Margaret Brennan,
Richard Escobedo and
Camilla Schick
contributed to this report.
