Weeks of growing anger over the hunger Palestinians due to the offensive and help restrictions of Israel had reached the White House, with President Donald Trump lamenting the view of the demacrated children on the edge of the starvation.
On Friday, his envoy from Middle East, Steve Witkoff, entered Gaza in a rare visit of high -level US officials to the besieged enclave.
Accompanied by the Israeli army, Witkoff visited a help distribution site in Southern Gaza led by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation backed by the United States and Israel, where hundreds of Palestinians desperately waited behind food beard wire.
“Incredible feat!” Mike Huckabee, the United States ambassador to Israel, who accompanied Witkoff, said in an X post on Friday, after touring GHF’s operations and talking with “people on the ground.”
The Palestinians and others within Gaza have criticized the visit as a public relations trick for GHF, whose help distribution process has been marked by chaos, looting and mortal shootings, often by Israeli soldiers, who have killed hundreds of hungry palestinians looking for help.
“It was a public relations trick, a supervised controlled visit and dictated by the Israeli army,” NBC News, an American nurse of critical care at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told the NBC News. “What they saw was not reality.”
Burgos had previously asked Witkoff to visit Gaza, urging him to witness the conditions on the ground, but he felt that his limited route did little to change the situation on the ground.
“The food is still incredibly difficult to find, people are still being fired in help distribution sites and violence continues,” he said.
On the day of the visit, at least 92 people were killed on Friday in Gaza, including 51 people looking for help, Dr. Mohammed Saqr, nursing director at Nasser Hospital, told NBC.
Mohamed Saddak, 47, who hoped to collect food for his nine family, told the NBC News crew that the tanks had advanced towards him and others while seeking to receive help.
“They are constantly shooting us,” he said, “shooting from tanks, and sometimes by drones.”
Israel’s defense forces did not immediately respond to a request for comments from NBC News on the shootings on the help sites after Witkoff visit.
Israeli officials continued to deny generalized hunger claims within Gaza, although in a sign of changing speech, high US officials have begun to recognize the crisis.
“You have young children who clearly starve,” said Vice President JD Vance to journalists on Monday.
In a publication about X, Witkoff said the purpose of the visit was to give Trump a “clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help develop a plan to deliver food and medical help to the people of Gaza.”
After Gaza, Witkoff visited Haranes on Saturday in Tel Aviv, where the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas demanded that the Israeli government ensure an agreement to free the remaining hostages. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, of which they are believed to be alive.
According to a statement from the Missing Hosages and Families forum, Witkoff said: “We will take their children home and hold Hamas responsible for any bad act on their part.” He added: “We will do the right thing for the people of Gazan.”
The protests occurred after a video of an Israeli hostage in Gaza, Rom Braslavski, was released by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Thursday. A day later, Hamas released a video of another Israeli hostage, avoid David, showing him alive but fragile. It is not clear when the videos were filmed.
“We cannot endure another minute without bringing it home,” said Braslavski cousin Adam Hajaj, in a statement. “This video shattered my family!”
Meanwhile, Huckbee praised the distribution of GHF of more than one million meals per day, which in the population of Gaza of approximately 2 million people averaged at half food per person per day.
GHF intervened to distribute food in the weeks that Israel raised its total blockade of almost three months in all foods and supplies that enter the enclave. But GHF’s help distributed, along with some amounts limited by other international organizations, was far from the needs of the population. Last Sunday, Israel said it was expanding the access of Gaza aid after indignation increased on generalized hunger and growing deaths from malnutrition.
GHF directs four help sites in Gaza, and although he affirms the independence of any government, he directs the sites within the militarized area of Israel with the support of the Israeli army.
Witnesses and help agencies have denounced the help delivery process, which, according to the UN, has resulted in the death of almost 1,400 people while collecting help, including 859 in the vicinity of the GHF sites.
The Israeli army and the GHF have recognized that some shots have been shot, but have been said only as warnings.
“The Israeli forces and private contractors backed by the United States have established a system of distribution of militarized and defective assistance that has turned the aid distributions into regular blood bath,” said Friday based in Human Rights Watch.
The colleague of Burgos, Dr. Tom Adamkiewicz, urged diplomats to see “what is happening to children, families, these young children and women who are basically being shot like rabbits.”
