As Trump shifts blame to Hamas, his envoy plans to see hunger crisis firsthand

By Natan Odenheimer

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, was holding talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Thursday, his first known visit to the country in months, as global outrage intensifies over the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Witkoff was set to visit an aid-distribution site in Gaza operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to an Israeli official and a person familiar with the details who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the trip publicly.

His visit comes as the Gaza Health Ministry said 111 Palestinians had died in the territory over the past 24 hours, including 91 people who were seeking aid. The circumstances of the deaths was unclear. The ministry, which is managed by Hamas, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.

Witkoff, the Trump administration’s lead negotiator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, met with Netanyahu at his office in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon, hours after the families of Israeli hostages had protested outside and called for a ceasefire.

Israel and the United States pulled back last week from negotiations to try to agree to another truce and to secure the release of hostages.

On Thursday, Trump called for Hamas to release the captives. “The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” he wrote on social media. The comments were a shift in tone from remarks earlier in the week, when he implied that Israel bore primary responsibility for improving humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Witkoff’s visit comes as Palestinians in Gaza are facing a hunger crisis, with a U.N.-backed food security group warning this week that “famine” was unfolding across the territory. The food crisis has become especially acute after Israel cut off all food supplies to the enclave between March and May. Israel has said without evidence that Hamas was routinely stealing U.N. aid supplies.

The crisis has been exacerbated by Israel’s decision, backed by the Trump administration, to introduce a new aid-distribution system led by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private American organization. It has given out food at a only a few sites in Gaza in areas that are controlled by the Israeli military. But amid chaotic scenes at the sites, hundreds of people have been killed while seeking food, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. In many cases, Israeli soldiers have been accused of firing on crowds. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots into the air.

In recent weeks, dozens of people have died from starvation, including children, according to the Gaza health officials. The worsening conditions in the territory have prompted a growing wave of international outrage toward Israel. Canada said Wednesday that it would recognize a Palestinian state, following similar moves by Britain and France in the past week. All three countries are long-standing allies of Israel.

The war began after a Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and saw roughly 250 people taken as hostages into Gaza. In response, Israel launched a sweeping military campaign that has killed more than 60,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel pulled out of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in March and resumed its attacks on Gaza after accusing Hamas of refusing to release the hostages. About 50 hostages are believed to be held in Gaza, though Israeli officials say some are presumed to have been killed.

On Thursday, a group of mothers and family members of the hostages held a protest outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem to call on Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring the remaining captives home.

In recent weeks, international organizations have become increasingly alarmed about the spread of hunger in Gaza.

Outrage inside Israel over the scale of the crisis has also been growing.

Separately, in a letter sent to the government and military, 16 Israeli law professors warned that the death and suffering of Gaza’s civilian population “amounts to violations of the gravest offenses under international law and constitutes a serious moral stain on the army, the government, and Israeli society as a whole.”