08/01/2025August 1, 2025US envoy Witkoff, Ambassador Huckabee visit GHF site in Gaza
US President Donald Trump‘s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, visited an aid distribution post operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the Gaza Strip on Friday, where they praised the controversial, private, US and Israel-backed organization’s work in delivering food to starving Palestinians.
“GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!” wrote Huckabee on social media, along with photos of himself and Witkoff engaged in discussions with GHF staff.
He also posted images of GHF banners proclaiming “100 million meals delivered” alongside an American flag. A queue of waiting civilians could be seen behind the banners and a razor wire barrier.
“Hamas hates GHF b/c it gets food to ppl w/o it being looted by Hamas,” he claimed, referring to claims that the Islamist group intercepts international aid deliveries to Gaza in order to either feed their own militants or sell products on to the population at inflated prices.
Critics have pointed out that “100 million meals” distributed to a population of 2 million people works out to roughly one meal per day for 50 days, or less than that over the “two months” cited by Huckabee. They have also questioned the nutritional value of the aid packages and if people can even access them.
On Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published data suggesting there have only been two days (June 16 and 17) since May 29 on which all four GHF sites (Tal al-Sultan, Saudi Neighborhood and Khan Younis in the south and Wadi Gaza further north) have been open simultaneously. Generally, only two or three sites actually open, and there were reportedly four days in a row from July 5-9 on which none opened at all.
When the sites are open, there have been regular reports of Israeli troops opening fire on desperate crowds. According to the United Nations‘ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), over 850 Palestinians were killed while attempting to obtain aid at GHF sites between 27 May and July 31.
“US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths,” said Belkis Wille, HRW associate crisis and conflict director, on Friday.