US envoy to visit Gaza aid sites as number of Palestinians killed while desperate for food grows
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will visit food distribution sites in Gaza run by the controversial US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) where hundreds of Palestinians have died in recent weeks trying to get food.
According to the UN human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed in the vicinity of the GHF sites since the GHF began operating in late May. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said: “Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military.”
Witkoff arrived in Israel on Thursday with Netanyahu’s government facing mounting international pressure.
He met with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to discuss the humanitarian situation and a possible ceasefire, AP reports.
Following the meeting, a senior Israeli official said an understanding between Israel and the US was emerging that there was a need to move from a plan to release some of the hostages to a plan to release all the hostages, disarm Hamas militants, and demilitarise the Gaza Strip, according to Reuters.
“The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had told reporters.
Trump on Thursday called the situation in Gaza “a terrible thing,” when asked about comments from his ally and Republican US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who termed Israel’s offensive in Gaza a “genocide”.
Earlier that day and shortly after Witkoff arrived in Israel, Trump had posted on social media: “The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!”
Key events
Syria has pledged to investigate clashes in the southern province of Sweida which killed hundreds of people last month, Reuters reports.
In a decree dated 31 July, justice minister Mazhar al-Wais said a committee of seven people – including judges, lawyers and a military official – would look into the circumstances that led to the “events in Sweida” and report back within three months.
The committee would investigate reported attacks and abuses against civilians and refer anyone proven to have participated in such attacks to the judiciary.
The violence in Sweida began on 13 July between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had longstanding tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week.
Here are some images coming to us over the wires.
Iran on Friday rejected accusations by the US and more than a dozen of its allies that Tehran had attempted to kill or kidnap dissidents, journalists and officials in Western countries, AFP reports.
In a statement, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the claims as “baseless”, calling them “an attempt to divert public attention from the most pressing issue of the day, the genocide in occupied Palestine”.
Western governments including the United States, Britain, France and Germany condemned in a joint statement on Thursday “the growing number of state threats from Iranian intelligence services in our respective territories”.
“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,” they said.
“These services are increasingly collaborating with international criminal organisations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials in Europe and North America.”
Baqaei said the accusations were “blatant fabrications… designed as part of a malicious Iranophobia campaign aimed at exerting pressure on the great Iranian nation”.
Sirens sounded in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip on Friday, prompting the military to launch an interceptor missile towards a suspected threat, the Israeli military said.
The military later confirmed that the launch was triggered by a false alarm, and no threat was detected, Reuters reports.
France sending 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza, foreign minister says
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Friday that France is sending four flights carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza from Jordan, Reuters reports.
“This is emergency aid but still not sufficient” in the face of this “revolting” situation, Barrot told broadcaster franceinfo.
A global hunger monitor said on Tuesday that a famine scenario was unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with malnutrition soaring, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access severely restricted.
US envoy to visit Gaza aid sites as number of Palestinians killed while desperate for food grows
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will visit food distribution sites in Gaza run by the controversial US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) where hundreds of Palestinians have died in recent weeks trying to get food.
According to the UN human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed in the vicinity of the GHF sites since the GHF began operating in late May. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said: “Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military.”
Witkoff arrived in Israel on Thursday with Netanyahu’s government facing mounting international pressure.
He met with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to discuss the humanitarian situation and a possible ceasefire, AP reports.
Following the meeting, a senior Israeli official said an understanding between Israel and the US was emerging that there was a need to move from a plan to release some of the hostages to a plan to release all the hostages, disarm Hamas militants, and demilitarise the Gaza Strip, according to Reuters.
“The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had told reporters.
Trump on Thursday called the situation in Gaza “a terrible thing,” when asked about comments from his ally and Republican US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who termed Israel’s offensive in Gaza a “genocide”.
Earlier that day and shortly after Witkoff arrived in Israel, Trump had posted on social media: “The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!”
