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Trump's envoy in Israel as Gaza criticism mounts / Photo: BASHAR TALEB - AFP
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Trump's envoy in Israel as Gaza criticism mounts
US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Israel on Thursday on ways to end the crisis in Gaza, where nearly 22 months of grinding war and dire shortages of food have drawn mounting international criticism.
Witkoff, who has been involved in months of stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival, the Israeli leader's office said.
The envoy may also visit a US-backed group distributing food in Gaza, according to Israeli reports.
Gaza's civil defence agency reported at least 58 Palestinians killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy -- the latest in a spate of near-daily incidents of desperate aid seekers being shot.
The Israeli military said troops had fired "warning shots" as Gazans gathered around the aid trucks.
An AFP correspondent saw bullet-riddled corpses in Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital.
Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israeli troops opened fire after "people saw thieves stealing and dropping food (and) the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some".
Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas but the discussions broke down last week when Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Doha.
Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood a hungry Gaza with food, with Canada the latest Western government to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left "no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace".
- International pressure -
Trump criticised Canada's decision and, in a post on his Truth Social network, placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
"The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!" declared Trump, one of Israel's staunchest international supporters.
Earlier this week, however, the US president contradicted Netanyahu's insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were exaggerated, warning that the territory faces "real starvation".
UN-backed experts have reported "famine is now unfolding" in Gaza, with images of sick and emaciated children drawing outrage and prompting first France, then Britain and now Canada to line up in support of Palestinian statehood.
Portugal on Thursday said it was "considering recognition of the Palestinian state".
Israel is also under pressure to resolve the crisis from other traditional supporters.
Germany's top diplomat Johann Wadephul, who met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in Jerusalem on Thursday, warned before setting off that "Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority".
Wadephul noted that Germany's European allies increasingly favour recognising Palestinian statehood, which Israeli leaders generally oppose.
Reacting to Canada's announcement, Israel decried a "distorted campaign of international pressure".
The US State Department said it would deny visas to officials from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- the core of any future Palestinian state.
- 'This is what death looks like' -
The Hamas attack that triggered that war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 people seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military.
The Israeli offensive, nearing its 23rd month, has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry.
The civil defence agency said Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday killed at least 32 people.
"Enough!" cried Najah Aish Umm Fadi, who lost relatives in a strike on a camp for the displaced in central Gaza.
"We put up with being hungry, but now the death of children who had just been born?"
Further north, Amir Zaqot told AFP after getting his hands on some of the aid parachuted from planes, that "this is what death looks like. People are fighting each other with knives".
"If the crossings were opened... food could reach us. But this is nonsense," Zaqot said of the airdrops.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties.
burs-dc/ami/kir
T.Cusumano--INP
