US envoy Witkoff to visit Gaza as pressure mounts on Israel

President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Israel on Thursday ahead of a rare US visit to aid distribution sites in Gaza, where nearly 22 months of grinding war and dire food shortages have sparked an international outcry.

Witkoff, who has been involved in months of stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival, the Israeli leader’s office said. On Friday he is to visit Gaza, the White House announced.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Witkoff, who previously visited Gaza in January, would “inspect 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.”

Gaza’s civil defense agency reported at least 58 Palestinians killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy – the latest in a spate of near-daily shootings of desperate aid seekers.

The Israeli military said troops had fired “warning shots” as Gazans gathered around the aid trucks.

An AFP correspondent saw stacks of bullet-riddled corpses in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital.

Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas but the discussions broke down last week when Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Doha.

Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood Gaza with food, with Canada and Portugal the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognize a Palestinian state.

International pressure

Trump criticized Canada’s decision and, in a post on his Truth Social network, placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

“The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” declared Trump, one of Israel’s staunchest international supporters.

Earlier this week, however, the US president contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were exaggerated, warning that the territory faces “real starvation.”

UN-backed experts have reported “famine is now unfolding” in Gaza, with images of sick and emaciated children drawing international outrage.

Israel is also under pressure to resolve the crisis from other traditional supporters.

Germany’s top diplomat Johann Wadephul, who met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, warned before setting off that “Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority.”

Wadephul noted that Germany’s European allies increasingly favor recognizing Palestinian statehood, which Israel opposes.

After the meeting, Saar’s office said he had told his German guest that countries queueing to recognize Palestinian statehood were merely rewarding Hamas.

And he insisted “a Palestinian state will not be established for the simple reason that Israel will not be able to forfeit its own security.”

The US State Department said it would deny visas to officials from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank – the core of any future Palestinian state.

The Hamas attack that triggered that war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 people seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military.

The Israeli offensive, nearing its 23rd month, has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.

This week UN aid agencies said deaths from starvation had begun.

The civil defense agency said Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday killed at least 32 people.