US envoy to discuss finalizing Gaza aid 'corridor': State Dept

WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday that a top envoy will travel to Europe for talks on a ceasefire and finalizing an aid “corridor” for war-ravaged Gaza, where authorities said people are dying of starvation.

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s globe-trotting negotiator, will head this week to a European destination for talks on Gaza, according to US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Clarifying an earlier statement, officials said Witkoff may travel after Europe to the Middle East to continue diplomacy.

Witkoff comes with “a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.

Bruce declined to give further details on the corridor.

She did not say how the diplomacy would relate to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an initiative backed by Israel and the United States that has seen chaotic scenes of troops firing on hungry Palestinians racing for food.

The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the GHF began its operations in late May, with most near the foundation’s sites.