The visit, to inspect food-distribution sites and meet with locals, reflects a new sense urgency after cease-fire talks go nowhere.

Steve Witkoff, the United States special envoy to the Middle East, visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza on Friday, where hundreds of Palestinians have died in recent weeks as they try to access what little food has entered the enclave.

The visit follows Witkoff's arrival in Israel on Thursday and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as ceasefire negotiations with Hamas have stalled. "At President Trump's direction, Ambassador Mike Huckabee and I met yesterday with Israeli officials to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza,