Gaza latest: Trump allies talk up success of aid group on visit to site in Gaza - despite food 'catastrophe' warning

Pictures of US visit very different - and peace seems no closer

An end to fighting seems no closer after two senior US officials visited Gaza this morning, our correspondent Sally Lockwood says.

Reporting from Jerusalem, she highlights the contrasting calm in pictures showing special envoy Steve Witkoff and ambassador Mike Huckabee visiting Rafah this morning, to the scenes many have seen in recent months.

Lockwood says: "The pictures, as you'd expect, look extremely calm and organised and ordered, very different to the images that we get from sites on a regular basis out of Gaza."

Witkoff and Huckabee visited a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) site in south Gaza.

Huckabee talked up the GHF's efforts - but the controversial group has been criticised by many.

"If you listen to what is being said on both sides, it's very hard to see how there will be any sort of breakthrough here," Lockwood says.

What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?

Much of today's news has centred around the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) - a controversial aid group backed by the US and Israel which is in control of distributing food in Gaza.

Ambassador Mike Huckabee talked up the GHF's efforts to provide meals to Gazans after his visit to Rafah today (see 11.56 post).

But its effectiveness has been marred by controversy and fatal shootings, ever since it was set up in February this year.

Aid deaths

According to the UN's human rights office, 859 people have been killed "in the vicinity" of GHF aid sites since late May.

Desperate crowds can surge for food or around aid convoys as a starvation crisis grips Gaza.

Israeli soldiers have been accused of opening fire on crowds.

The GHF operates in Israeli military zones and there have been near-daily reports of deaths near its aid sites.

Israel denies its soldiers intentionally shoot at civilians and says they only fire warning shots.

Chief executive quits

The group has been controversial from the start.

On the eve of it becoming operational, its chief executive Jake Wood resigned.

Similarly, aid organisations refused to co-operate with it, questioning its credibility and independence.

Initial reports in US media also suggested it had been Israel's idea.

Millions of meals

Northern Gaza has seen some of the worst conditions, with aid agencies warning late last year that it was on the brink of famine.

The GHF has three hubs in the south and one in central Gaza.

It promised to deliver 300 million meals within its first 90 days.

It says it has so far delivered 100 million meals.

The GHF hands out vital supplies and pre-packaged rations of food.

But UN-backed food scarcity authority, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), warned that the meals the GHF delivers "are not ready-to-eat and require water and fuel to cook, which are largely unavailable."

See our 11.30 post for more on that.

Working in a war zone

The GHF defends its actions, saying it is working in a war zone.

It says that previously aid was being hijacked by Hamas and it is "breaking the failed aid models".

Witkoff: Gaza visit took place at Trump's direction to 'craft a plan to deliver food'

Donald Trump envoy Steve Witkoff says he and the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spent more than five hours inside Gaza earlier.

As we've been reporting, the pair visited an aid distribution site in Rafah, in Gaza's south. 

The visit was on Trump's orders, Witkoff has posted on X.

Witkoff said: "The purpose of the visit was to give POTUS a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza."

The US president has spoken more about the starvation crisis in Gaza in recent weeks, even contradicting Israel over the extent of the problems there.

But, as we reported earlier, the visit today has sought to highlight the achievements of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) - the group backed by Israel and the US which is responsible for distributing aid.

That's despite the group facing regular criticism for slow aid and shootings near distribution sites.

'Live among us': People of Gaza send message to Trump envoy

Some of the influential tribes in Gaza have asked US special envoy Steve Witkoff to see what life in the enclave is really like amid Israel's offensive and "live among us".

As we reported earlier, see our 11.56 post, Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid site in the south today.

Pictures of the visit look calm and orderly, contrasting the reality of what aid sites are often like.

The tribes also accused Israel of empowering factions that loot aid sites.

"We want the American envoy to come and live among us in these tents where there is no water, no food and no light," they said. 

"Our children are hungry in the streets."

At least 25 killed in Gaza, medics say

At least 25 people have been killed in Gaza, according to officials at the Nasser Hospital.

The hospital, in southern Gaza, said 13 of the dead were killed while trying to get aid, including near the site special envoy Steve Witkoff and ambassador Mike Huckabee toured earlier today - see our 11.56 post.

The remaining 12 were killed in Israeli airstrikes, the officials said.

It's not clear over what timescale the deaths took place, but the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation denied that anyone was killed at their sites today.

It claimed the most recent deaths had taken place near UN aid convoys.

Palestinians gather in northern Gaza to collect aid

Palestinians have gathered in northern Gaza to collect food aid.

Huge crowds passing levelled buildings carried away bags of aid in Beit Lahia.

The price of food in Gaza has skyrocketed during Israel's ongoing war with Hamas, leaving many unable to afford even basics.

A kilogram of flour has cost as much as £45 recently, with a kilogram of lentils up to £26.

Amid the fighting, security in Gaza has collapsed, leaving very little order to some aid distribution, with some convoys being stripped by gangs and crowds.

Aid airdrops 'insufficient and inefficient' - UN refugee agency chief

The chief of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said aid airdrops are "insufficient and inefficient".

Philippe Lazzarini said dropping in aid is vastly more costly than aid trucks, and delivers less help.

He said the people of Gaza were "starving" and that it needed to be flooded with aid.

"If there is political will to allow airdrops - which are highly costly, insufficient and inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings," Lazzarini added.

This has been a repeated criticism of airdrops and comes as France and Germany carried out aid airdrops today.

Israel has accused UNRWA employees of taking part in the 7 October attack in 2023. The agency sacked nine of the 12 accused workers in August last year. 

France airdrops aid into Gaza

We brought you news earlier today that France had sent aid flights to Gaza - see our 9.35 post.

President Emmanuel Macron has now shared footage of the aid drops taking place.

Both France and Germany are conducting aid airdrops today, relying on local partners like Jordan - where flights are often taking off from.

But Macron warned airdrops alone were insufficient to meet Gaza's needs.

"Israel must open full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine," he said in a post on social media.

-SKY NEWS