Israel kills starving Palestinians as US envoy visits aid sites

At least two people were killed and more than 70 injured while waiting for food supplies near the Morag Corridor south of Khan Younis on Friday morning, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.
US envoy Steve Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, have visited aid distribution sites in Gaza as deaths from starvation continue to mount in the Palestinian territory.US envoy’s planned aid site visit likely to be ‘choreographed’
As we reported earlier, US envoy Steve Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are planning to visit GHF-run aid distribution sites in Gaza today.

Martin Griffiths, the UN’s former under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, says while the visit is “likely to be choreographed”, it’s still an “important form of witness”.

“I’m glad that they’re going,” Griffiths, now the director of Mediation Group International, told Al Jazeera. “Maybe they will see things that are unexpected. I can’t imagine because we’ve seen so much. But I don’t see it leading to a major change.”

“If I was one of the two million Gazans starving to death, this is a day I would like to go to an aid distribution point,” Griffiths added. “There’s slightly less risk probably than any other day.”Bloodshed at GHF-run aid sites ‘a great sin’: Ex-UN official
Martin Griffiths, director of Mediation Group International and the former Under Secretary General of the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office, says the US and Israel-backed GHF’s aid distribution system has turned into a “catastrophe”, as the number of aid seekers killed continues to climb beyond 1,000.

“I think when many of us saw the first plans of the GHF to launch this operation in Gaza, we were immediately appalled by the way they were proposing to manage it,” Griffiths told Al Jazeera.

“It was clearly militarised. They’d have their own security contractors. They’d have [Israeli military] camps placed right beside them. We know now that they are, in fact, under instructions by [the Israeli military]. All of this is a crime. All of this is a deep betrayal of humanitarian values.”

“But what I at least did not sufficiently anticipate was the killing and was the absolutely critical result of this operation, this sole humanitarian operation allowed by Israel in Gaza,” Griffiths added.

“The 1,000 killed are an incredible statistic. I had no idea it would go that high and it’s going on daily. It’s not stopping.”

“I think it’s a catastrophe more than a disappointment,” he said. “I think it’s a great sin. I think it’s a great crime.”Gaza residents recount suffering from food crisis due to Israeli blockade
“I am going to get food for my siblings. My father was martyred. If I didn’t go to bring it, my siblings would die from hunger. What can I do?” a child has told Al Jazeera near the GHF aid distribution site that has seen hundreds of starving Palestinians shot dead.

Separately, a mother of eight children told Al Jazeera that her five-month-old daughter is malnourished because she was not getting enough food during pregnancy.

She said that she has already lost her fourth child to malnutrition.

“My fourth kid died. The reason for his death was malnutrition. He was severely malnourished. We couldn’t provide food for him or provide anything for the child to eat,” she said. “He died in my arms as I was taking him to the hospital.”