United States envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit to Israel has failed to break the deadlock in Gaza ceasefire talks, raising the prospect that Israel will escalate its military operation in the coming days.
Mr Witkoff, who met Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday, visited a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution centre on Friday following mounting international criticism of Israel over claims of hunger in the territory.
Mr Witkoff was accompanied by Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel.
“The purpose of the visit was to give US president Donald Trump a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza,” Mr Witkoff said on X after the visit.
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Humanitarian organisations and many foreign governments have been strongly critical of the GHF, which began operations in late May. A global hunger monitor warned this week that famine was unfolding in Gaza.
The visit came after the Human Rights Watch non-governmental organisation accused Israel and the US of putting in place a “flawed” aid system that turns distribution sites into “regular bloodbaths”.
The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in Gaza since the GHF began operating there, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.
The Israeli military has acknowledged its forces have killed some Palestinians seeking aid and says it has given its troops new orders to improve their response.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Friday that another 53 people were killed in the previous 24 hours while seeking aid. A total of 83 people were killed in total as the fighting continued in the territory.
Israel cut off all supplies to the enclave for nearly three months from March-May. It blames Hamas and the UN for the failure of food to get to desperate Palestinians in Gaza and introduced the GHF distribution system, saying it would prevent aid supplies being seized by Hamas. Hamas denies stealing aid.
Mr Trump told the Axios news site on Friday: “We want to help people. We want to help them live. We want to get people fed. It is something that should have happened a long time ago.” He blamed Hamas for stealing and selling aid that has entered Gaza.
A senior Israeli official said the stalemate in the Gaza talks has led to a preference for comprehensive plan instead of the 60-day ceasefire deal under discussion.
“There will be no more partial deals,” the official was quoted as saying, explaining that Israel and the US now agree on the need to “shift from a framework for the release of some of the hostages to a framework for the release of all of the hostages, the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip”.
Israel has warned that without a diplomatic breakthrough in the coming days the possibility of escalating the military assault will be considered.
Far-right ministers in the coalition government are advocating for a full occupation of Gaza, with troops entering areas that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has previously avoided for fear of harming the hostages in Hamas captivity. About 20 of the 50 hostages are still believed to be alive.
This week, far-right minister Amichay Eliyahu said the captives should be considered prisoners of war and not hostages, stressing that prisoners are returned at the end of a war and that Israel’s number one priority should be to defeat Hamas.
The far right sees the reoccupation of Gaza as a way of re-establishing Jewish settlements in the coastal enclave and reversing the 2005 disengagement when all Jewish settlements were demolished.
IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir has spelled out the consequences of a decision to occupy the strip fully: an increased danger to the hostages and the troops on the ground as well as a heavier burden on the combat troops in the regular army and in the reserves.
Israeli forces already control about 75 per cent of Gaza, having pushed the local population into three enclaves: Gaza city in the north, the refugee camps in the centre of the strip and the Mawasi region in the south.
About 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted in the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023. Since then, more than 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza.
