US Middle East envoy toured food distribution centre in Rafah amid growing international horror at conditions in the territory
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Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has visited Gaza and been shown one of the controversial aid sites around which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces.
Witkoff, the US president’s special envoy for the Middle East, had earlier met Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu amid mounting international horror over conditions of starvation in Gaza occurring after months of Israeli-imposed aid restrictions.
The visit to the site in Rafah by Witkoff – a former real estate lawyer with no foreign policy or humanitarian background, who has also met Vladimir Putin on Trump’s behalf – was first reported by a number of Israeli media organisations. His visit comes as Human Rights Watch described the aid sites run by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as “death traps” that had become the scene of regular “bloodbaths”. The UN has said almost 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces attempting to reach the sites.
