Donald Trump’s Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel today, as the number of recorded deaths from starvation and malnutrition in Gaza rises to 156, including 90 children.
Shortly after Witkoff’s arrival, US President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social network: “The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!”
According to Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, Witkoff will also visit a food distribution site in Gaza during his trip to the region.
It comes as Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital says it has received the bodies of another 54 Palestinians shot dead by Israeli soldiers while waiting for food near the Zikim crossing yesterday in northern Gaza. Another 400 were reportedly injured in the attack. The Israeli army says its soldiers fired "warning shots”.
Dr Thomas Adamkiewicz, an American paediatrician volunteering at Gaza’s Nasser hospital with US organisation MedGlobal, has urged Witkoff to meet him while in the enclave. Speaking to the BBC, Adamkiewicz described seeing young children passing out in the emergency room from lack of food and spoke of his recent experience treating an 11-year-old boy who will most likely be paralysed for life, after being shot while trying to collect food for his family.
Witkoff is in the Middle East one week after the US pulled its negotiating team out of Qatar, following another breakdown of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, with both side blaming the other for the deadlock.
Trump’s special envoy claimed Washington would "consider alternative options” to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and bring Israeli hostages home but did not elaborate on what he meant by this.
Washington has been far more explicit today in its opposition to the move from a growing number of European allies to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September.
The US - which has already condemned this as “rewarding terrorism” - doubled down on its objection to the plan today by announcing sanctions on officials of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The State Department said targeted individuals would be barred from traveling to the United States but is yet to identify those targeted.
This is in direct response to the recent spate of announcements on Palestinian statehood because the PA and PLO, rivals of Hamas, are internationally accepted as the representatives of the Palestinian people and administrators of a Palestinian state that France, Britain and Canada have said in recent days they could soon recognise as independent.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn’t hold back in his criticism of European allies, describing the American sanctioning of Palestinian officials as “important action” that “exposes the moral distortion of certain countries that ran to recognise a virtual Palestinian state while turning a blind eye to its support for terror and incitement".
A chasm has opened up between Washington and its traditional allies on the longer-term future of Israel and Palestine.
But new common ground has emerged between western and Arab nations on Hamas. The shift in position on Palestinian statehood from a number of Israel’s allies has prompted many Arab nations, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to take the unprecedented step of condemning October 7 and calling for Hamas to lay down its arms and surrender control of Gaza.
Caitlin Allen
Deputy Editor
ON REACTION TODAY
Gerald Warner
The EU's humiliating surrender should have been signed in a railway carriage
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FIVE THINGS
1. Starmer’s move on Palestine statehood is clever politics, argues Brian Brivati in The Conversation.
2. Mariel Borowitz, Lincoln Hines and Lawrence Rubin in War On The Rocks: The United States should act now to mitigate conflict escalation on the Moon.
3. Can any nation protect against an Ukraine-style drone smuggling attack? New Scientist investigates.
4. The Wall Street Journal: Britain caves on Hong Kong extradition.
5. Republicans want to redraw America’s political map: what happens in Texas probably won’t stay there. Elaine Godrey in The Atlantic.