THE visit of US envoy Steve Witkoff to Gaza’s aid corridors underlines how broken the West’s humanitarian response is to the Gaza war. Rather than help restore UN-led relief efforts after Israel blocked most humanitarian access to the occupied territory, the US has backed an alternative aid model, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose poorly managed food distribution points have become death zones. More than 1,300 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have died trying to access aid. Some were trampled in stampedes; others were shot by Israeli forces as they queued for survival. With Gaza now in the grip of famine — and malnutrition ravaging a quarter of its children and pregnant women — the GHF model is indefensible. UN agencies have rightly refused to endorse it, warning that these chaotic distribution centres are neither neutral nor safe. Human Rights Watch has called them “bloodbaths”. Still, Washington continues to prop them up.

Mr Witkoff’s visit comes amid diplomatic movement. A peace conference was held in New York recently with proposals for a two-state framework, Hamas disarmament and hostage release. Encouragingly, countries such as France and Canada favour a Palestinian state. But such signals are long overdue. Western governments, particularly the US, have indulged Israel’s devastating war for far too long. Their selective outrage — vocal on hostages, silent on mass Palestinian suffering — has cost tens of thousands of lives. President Donald Trump, who once gave Israel carte blanche, appears to be softening his stance, acknowledging “real starvation” in Gaza, and Israeli author David Grossman— once reluctant to utter the word — has called his own country’s campaign in Gaza “genocide”, explaining he now uses the term “with immense pain and with a broken heart”. But words will not suffice. The global community must act now. A ceasefire is imperative. UN access must be restored — and most crucially, Palestinian statehood must be recognised within a two-state framework.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2025