One day after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff visited Rafah in the Gaza Strip today, to observe the food delivery operation run by the U.S.-Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GDF), which has been attacked as a “death trap” by the UN and other humanitarian agencies because of the number of Palestinians who have been gunned down by IDF and mercenary foreign contractors as they attempted to obtain food at GHF sites. Witkoff was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, the Christian Zionist, who is an ardent defender of the GHF. Only Israeli government and GHF officials were present at the meeting. No other international aid officials participated.
Following the visit, the first made to Gaza by a high-profile U.S. official since Israel’s war on Gaza began, Witkoff posted on X that he had spent five hours in Gaza at President Trump’s direction and met with Israeli officials “to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza … level setting the facts on the ground, assessing conditions, and meeting with @GHFUpdates and other agencies.” The goal, he said, was “to help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.” The Guardian quoted GHF spokesman Chapin Fay, who said the visit reflected Trump’s understanding of the crisis and that “feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority.”
Huckabee was effusive about the visit and about the GHF, which he has defended against claims that hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while seeking food at its sites. He posted on X: “this morning I joined @SEPeaceMissions Steve Witkoff for a visit to Gaza to learn the truth about @GHFUpdates aid sites. We received briefings from @IDF and spoke to folks on the ground. GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!” Among the “folks on the ground,” there was not one Palestinian to be seen.
