Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will recognize a Palestinian state in September if the West Bank’s governing body agrees to make certain commitments.

The prime minister said the Palestinian Authority must hold an election in 2026 and commit to other democratic reforms.

“Preserving a two-state solution means standing with all people who choose peace over violence or terrorism, and honouring their innate desire for the peaceful co-existence of Israeli and Palestinian states as the only roadmap for a secure and prosperous future,” Carney said during a news conference on Wednesday.

He said Canada would formally recognize the state of Palestine at the UN General Assembly.

WATCH | Carney says Canada will recognize Palestinian state: Carney announces Canada will recognize Palestinian state in September At a news conference Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, but the West Bank’s governing body must agree to certain conditions including committing to holding an election in 2026.

Carney’s announcement came after he spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas earlier Wednesday.

Mona Abuamara, the former chief representative of the Palestinian General Delegation to Canada, told CBC’s Power & Politics that she believes the commitments Carney set out are achievable.

“The Palestinian people have been living hell for two years. They know what they want. They need the opportunity to actually build their own state,” she told guest host David Common.

WATCH | Palestinian Authority ‘committed’ to reforms as Canada to recognize statehood: Palestinian Authority ‘committed’ to reforms as Canada to recognize statehood Chief representative of the General Delegation of Palestine in Italy, and Canada’s former representative, Mona Abuamara says the Palestinian Authority is committed to meet the conditions set out by Prime Minister Mark Carney as he announced Canada’s intentions to recognize a Palestinian state in September.

The Palestinian Authority currently controls parts of the West Bank through the Fatah party. Hamas governs in Gaza. Neither territory has held an election since 2006.

Carney said Hamas can have no role in the election he is proposing. He also reiterated that Hamas needs to release the remaining Israeli hostages and said a Palestinian state must be demilitarized.

The announcement follows similar commitments from other allied countries in the past week.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday the U.K. will also recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, allows the UN to bring in aid and takes other steps toward long-term peace.

WATCH | Carney says prospect of 2-state solution being ‘eroded before our eyes’: Carney on whether recognizing a Palestinian state is a ‘critique’ of Israel Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada’s decision to recognize the state of Palestine was influenced by the possibility of a two-state solution being ‘eroded before our eyes.’

France announced a similar plan last week, but without conditions. Ireland, Norway and Spain have all recognized Palestine within the last year.

Carney said he has spoken to both Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron in recent days.

“In our judgment, and the judgment of others, the prospect of a Palestinian state is literally receding before our eyes,” the prime minister said.

“Working with others to support the possibility of a Palestinian state establishes that [prospect].”

Canadian governments previously said they would acknowledge a Palestinian state only after a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and Palestinian leadership. Carney said that approach was “no longer tenable.”

Carney said the ongoing threat of Hamas, the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and “the ongoing failure by the Israeli government to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza” spurred Canada to make this move now.

Israel rejects Canada’s plans

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said its government “rejects” Carney’s move.

“The change in the position of the Canadian government at this time is a reward for Hamas and harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages,” the statement said.

Iddo Moed, the Israeli Ambassador to Canada, told Power & Politics that Canada’s decision would “embolden” Hamas.

“Hamas is very much aware of what is going on right now and I think they will be celebrating this very message,” Moed said.

WATCH | Israeli ambassador rejects Canada’s intention to recognize Palestinian state: Israeli ambassador rejects Canada’s intention to recognize Palestinian state Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed tells Power & Politics that Israel rejects Canada’s plans to recognize Palestinian sovereignty in September, saying it ‘rewards’ Hamas.

Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), said in a news statement on Wednesday that Carney’s decision is “predicated on misplaced faith in vague commitments” by Abbas.

“Extending recognition absent real change on the ground is a recipe for another failed Palestinian pseudo-state controlled by terrorists,” Shack said.

More than 100 advocacy groups have been warning of hunger spreading in Gaza as ceasefire negotiations stall.

Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies it is responsible for food shortages.

Carney was asked how likely it is that elections could be held given the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the heightened tensions in the region overall.

“Much has to happen in order for a democratic viable state [to be] established in Palestine. We fully recognize that,” Carney said.

“We’re committed to help work as part of that process, but I’m not in any way [or] shape minimizing the scale of that task.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand spoke at a UN conference on the two-state solution earlier this week. (Richard Drew/The Associated Press)

Carney was joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who announced $10 million “to accelerate reform and capacity-building for the Palestinian Authority” earlier this week.

Anand’s announcement was made at a major UN conference — convened by France and Saudi Arabia — to find ways to preserve the two-state solution.

Conservatives denounce decision

The Conservative Party said in a statement that it supports a two-state solution, but also said Carney’s decision is a “reward” for Hamas.

“A unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood, without peace negotiations or a renunciation of violence, destroys the path to a lasting, two-state solution. Worse, it legitimizes terrorism by handing political rewards to a group that rules Gaza through fear, oppression and brutality,” the statement said.

NDP MP Heather McPherson said she welcomed Carney’s decision but said it should have been made sooner. She also called on Canada to do more to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“It should not have taken the Liberals this long to make this decision — and it should not take until September to implement it,” McPherson wrote in a statement.

“The Liberals should recognize the state of Palestine today — while also taking the political action necessary to end Canada’s complicity in this genocide.”

In the past week, a number of Liberal MPs have called on Canada to follow France’s lead.

Toronto MP Salma Zahid and Montreal-area MP Sameer Zuberi said in social media posts that Canada must join France in announcing its recognition of a state for the Palestinian people.

Fares Al Soud, who represents the Toronto-area riding of Mississauga Centre, said on social media that justice for the Palestinian people “demands recognition.”

Last fall, dozens of MPs from the Liberals, NDP, Bloc Québécois and Green Party joined an international call for the recognition a Palestinian state.

US allies break with Trump to force diplomatic shift on Gaza

1 day ago Share Save Tom Bateman State department correspondent, at the United Nations Share Save

Watch: BBC presses UK foreign secretary on timing of recognising Palestinian state

As Canada joins France and the UK in announcing plans to recognise a Palestinian state, the US is standing firmly with Israel – but does Trump have a long-term plan for Gaza’s future? Of all history’s declarations about the Middle East, one that may be less prominent in the global collective memory was in Tokyo in November 2023. Then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out a series of principles for the “day after” the war in Gaza at a meeting of the G7, a group of the world’s most powerful countries. He travelled there from Tel Aviv, after meeting Israel’s leadership a month after the Hamas attacks on October 7, during the ensuing Israeli offensive on Gaza. Blinken listed what amounted to US conditions for Israel’s military objectives and the wider conflict: No forcible displacement of Palestinians. No Israeli re-occupation of Gaza after the war ends. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. A future governance that must be Palestinian-led, involving the internationally backed Palestinian Authority. No role for Hamas. The principles were intended to generate support from America’s allies in Europe and parts of the Arab world – even if Israel objected to many of them. Few probably remember Blinken declaring his Tokyo Principles – least of all the Trump administration, which immediately jettisoned them. But the ideas are still supported by many US allies, who travelled to the United Nations in New York this week for a French-Saudi-led conference calling for a rekindling of the two-state solution.

Watch: How did Gaza get to the brink of starvation?

The conference made headlines as France, then the UK, committed to recognising a Palestinian state later this year under certain conditions. On Wednesday afternoon, Canada followed suit. But the Trump administration boycotted the meeting, viewing it as anti-Israel. “The United States will not participate in this insult but will continue to lead real-world efforts to end the fighting and deliver a permanent peace,” said US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, deriding the conference as a “publicity stunt”. Now, a chasm has opened up between the US and its traditional allies on the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This raises a question: Does the Trump administration have a vision for the future governance of Gaza and longer-term permanent peace? It is becoming increasingly clear that it doesn’t – at least not one of its own. Earlier this month, I asked Ms Bruce what the administration’s vision was for the future governance of Gaza, beyond its requirement that Hamas cannot exist. She responded that “countries, our partners in the region” were working to implement “new ideas” the president had asked for. When I pressed her on what this involved she said: “I won’t exactly tell you today.”

No Gaza ‘riviera’ – but another plan uncertain

In February, President Trump declared that the US would take over the Gaza Strip and build a “riviera of the Middle East” in a plan that involved the forced displacement of Palestinians in the territory, which the US and Israel later tried to claim meant “voluntary” emigration. Whilst the idea was clearly unfeasible and would be in violation of international law, it appeared to be Trump’s post-war plan. It would presumably have involved Israeli military occupation of the strip to facilitate it. It was not clear how any continuing insurgency by Hamas or aligned armed groups would have been defeated. Since then, the plan has been slowly, quietly dropped – at least in its fuller form. Asked on Tuesday about his plan to move Palestinians Trump described it as “a concept that was really embraced by a lot of people, but also some people didn’t like it”. The latter was probably a reference to rejection by Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, which Trump visited in May for a lavish trade tour to take in gilded palaces. The administration prefers to talk about the immediate issue: freeing hostages and getting a ceasefire. When Trump was again asked to look beyond that, during a recent White House visit from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he immediately deferred to the Israeli leader to answer. It amounts to a growing evidence that the Trump administration’s strategy on Gaza increasingly parallels that of its Israeli ally. Mr Netanyahu rejects any involvement of the Palestinian Authority in future governance of Gaza, where his forces now control some two-thirds of the territory. The far-right flank of his coalition demands permanent military occupation, the expulsion of Palestinians and the building of Jewish settlements. Israel and the US have attempted to take control of the food supply for Palestinians, within militarised zones, while Israel also arms Palestinian militiamen who rival Hamas. The international body that monitors famine, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said there is mounting evidence of widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease in Gaza. Israel has blamed Hamas and the UN for the crisis, but said it is facilitating more aid. Many European nations have watched aghast. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told me on Wednesday: “We have seen the most horrific scenes. The global community is deeply offended by children being shot and killed as they reach out for aid.” Starvation appears to be an inflection point for European countries – a moral impetus to drive their divergent diplomacy. Domestic pressures in Britain and France also mounted to recognise a Palestinian state under certain conditions. Without a coherent, internationally backed plan for future governance, Gaza faces the prospect of increasing chaos.

REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun Smoke rises from Gaza as the sun sets, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, July 30

France and the United Kingdom are among the latest countries preparing to formally recognize a state of Palestine — a move by two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council that would deepen their split with Israel and the United States over the 22-month war in Gaza. Canada this week also joined the chorus of nations that have recently signaled openness to recognizing Palestinian statehood.

The planned recognition, expected as early as September, could mark a turning point. While France appears ready to move unconditionally, Britain and Canada have tied their decision to actions by Israel or the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The shift reflects mounting global outrage over the humanitarian toll in Gaza, including reports of widespread starvation in the besieged territory.

More than 145 countries recognize a state of Palestine.

Mouin Rabbani, a nonresident senior fellow with the Middle East Council on Global Affairs research group, says the move — though largely symbolic — carries diplomatic weight. “When you have states with the significance and importance of France and Britain taking this measure, it does leave the sense of a dam breaking,” Rabbani says. “One can expect others to follow.”

The move also serves to “put a shot across the bow of Israel,” says Michael Lynk, a former U.N. independent expert on human rights in the Palestinian territories. For the nations choosing to recognize a state of Palestine, it signals to the world that they are “annoyed, upset [and] distressed by Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in a statement that recognizing a Palestinian state “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims.” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared that sentiment in a post on X last week that called it a “reckless decision” that “only serves Hamas propaganda.” Palestinian Authority officials welcomed the announcements by France and the U.K., while the BBC reported that Hamas called France’s action a “positive step.”

What exactly have France, the U.K. and Canada said?

Paris, London and Ottawa have long supported a two-state solution to resolve the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing a Palestinian state, something that Palestinians say should include the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The leaders of the three countries have said they intend to make an announcement at September’s U.N. General Assembly in New York. But they are taking slightly different approaches.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron, in a letter shared on X, assured Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that France plans to recognize a Palestinian state. Macron called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, “massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” ensuring “the demilitarization of Hamas” and rebuilding a Palestinian state that fully recognizes Israel.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has outlined a September timeline for Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire, halts the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and commits to a two-state solution. His statement also calls for “the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the removal of Hamas leadership from Gaza as key steps towards a negotiated two-state solution.”

Canada has some of the same conditions. In a news conference on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government’s move was aimed at preserving a two-state solution “as the only road map for a secure and prosperous future.” Carney also said that the Palestinian Authority, which has not held elections since 2006, must hold a vote in 2026 that excludes Hamas.

More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces over the course of the war in Gaza, the Gaza Health Ministry says. The war began with a Hamas-led attack in October 2023 that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israel.

What are the practical and diplomatic implications?

Leonardo Munoz / AFP via Getty Images / AFP via Getty Images U.N. Security Council members vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, at the U.N. headquarters in New York City on June 4. Recognition of a Palestinian state by the U.K. and France could have implications for the Security Council.

If the U.K. and France recognize a Palestinian state, 4 out of the 5 permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — France, the U.K., Russia and China — will speak with a single voice on the issue. “That means the United States is the only country … that refuses to budge from its kind of unconditional support for everything that Israel does,” according to Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Diplomatically, it means that the recognizing countries could exchange full ambassadors with the Palestinian Authority, says Lynk, who is currently an associate professor at Western University’s Faculty of Law, in London, Ontario. “It would be raising the status of [Canada’s] representative office in Ramallah [in the West Bank] to a full embassy with an ambassador instead of a representative, and Palestine would have an ambassador and a full embassy in Ottawa.”

Most countries that don’t currently have formal relations with the Palestinian Authority nonetheless have maintained informal ties through various diplomatic, political and humanitarian channels.

“States that recognize Palestine … would have obligations … to take steps to protest and take action — actual sanctions if need be — against any state that’s interfering with Palestinian sovereignty,” Lynk says.

With France and Britain, it could mean two additional votes against Israel at the U.N. Security Council, but as Rabbani notes, “France and Britain have for decades not deployed their veto in defense of Israel.” Instead, they’ve allowed the United States to exercise its veto, he says. “So I don’t think anything is going to change in the Security Council.”

Lastly, there could be implications for the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November for “crimes against humanity and war crimes” committed since the start of the Gaza conflict. Netanyahu has called the charges “outrageous” and the international court an “enemy of humanity.”

Yaël Ronen, a senior research fellow at the Minerva Center for Human Rights at Hebrew University, says the recognition “could have legal consequences … in the context of the ICC jurisdiction.”

However, France has said it would not arrest Netanyahu and Gallant because it would be “incompatible with its obligations in terms of international law with regards to immunities granted to states which are not party to the ICC” — in this case Israel.

So, recognition of a Palestinian state “doesn’t mean that those states would necessarily arrest these politicians if they arrive on French or British soil,” Ronen says.

Rabbani adds: “We’ve seen this year that France has on multiple occasions permitted indicted war criminals, Israeli war criminals who are fugitives from international justice because they’re wanted by the ICC, to use French airspace on their way to the United States.”

France, Britain and Canada have all said Hamas must be sidelined from a future Palestinian state, but it’s not clear whether that is possible.

Hamas, which controls Gaza and is separate from the Palestinian Authority, has relations with some Middle East countries and enjoys limited ties with Russia and China. But the European Union and most Western nations, including the United States, Canada and Australia, have declared the Islamist organization a terrorist group.

Why the sudden shift now?

“There’s a crisis. There’s a sense that something needs to be done to stop this. So you do whatever is possible. And if there’s nothing else, this is what you do,” Ronen says.

Public opinion also plays a role. In the U.K., for example, 45% of Britons now say that their government should recognize a Palestinian state, while only 14% disagree, according to a YouGov poll conducted last week.

For the countries moving toward recognizing a state of Palestine, Israel’s actions have forced their hand, says Rabbani. Former French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine, speaking to Le Monde, said Macron’s government had a duty to do something. “Given the appalling situation in Gaza and the lack of prospects, it was becoming dishonorable to do nothing,” Védrine said.

Rabbani also suspects that the countries in question are hoping to revive the possibility of a two-state solution, which he describes as “a framework that is increasingly becoming an illusion.”

“They’ve been placed in an impossible situation by the Israeli government,” amid growing domestic political pressure, he says.

In the end, simply recognizing Palestinian statehood is a low-cost option. It may placate a domestic audience demanding action, while doing very little to actually change the situation on the ground, Rabbani says. And it’s easier than imposing real sanctions on Israel, which the U.K., France and Canada have not proposed.

“In that sense, there’s a very large contradiction between words and action,” he says.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Summary Canada says its recognition must come with Palestinian Authority reforms

Israel, US say recognition “rewards Hamas”

US special envoy Witkoff to travel to Israel on Thursday

OTTAWA/JERUSALEM, July 30 (Reuters) – Canada plans to recognize the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on Israel as starvation spreads in Gaza.

The announcement came after France said last week it would recognize a Palestinian state and a day after Britain said it would recognize the state at September’s U.N. General Assembly meeting if the fighting in Gaza, part of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, had not stopped by then.

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Carney told reporters that the reality on the ground, including starvation of people in Gaza, meant “the prospect of a Palestinian state is literally receding before our eyes.”

“Canada condemns the fact that the Israeli government has allowed a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza,” he said.

Carney said the planned recognition was based in part on repeated assurances from the Palestinian Authority, which represents the State of Palestine at the U.N., that it was reforming its governance and is willing to hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas “can play no part.”

The announcements by some of Israel’s closest allies reflect growing international outrage over Israel’s restrictions on food and other aid to Gaza in its war against Hamas militants, and the dire humanitarian crisis there. A global hunger monitor has warned that a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in the enclave.

The Gaza health ministry reported seven more hunger-related deaths on Wednesday, including a two-year-old girl with an existing health condition. The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said the Israeli military killed at least 50 people within three hours on Wednesday as they tried to get food from U.N. aid trucks coming into the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel and its closest ally, the U.S., both rejected Carney’s statements.

“The change in the position of the Canadian government at this time is a reward for Hamas and harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made similar comments after the French and British announcements.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Donald Trump also sees recognition of the State of Palestine as wrongly “rewarding Hamas.”

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is due to travel to Israel on Thursday to discuss Gaza. Trump said this week he expected centers to be set up to feed more people in the enclave.

The State of Palestine has been a non-member observer state of the U.N. General Assembly since 2012, recognized by more than three-quarters of the assembly’s 193 member states.

Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy U.S. national intelligence officer on the Middle East, said recognition of Palestine is intended “to increase pressure on Israel to compel it to return to a two-state paradigm.” But he said Canada’s announcement is “unlikely to be anything more than symbolic and risks undermining their relationship with a longtime ally in Israel.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke with Carney before Canada’s announcement, said the recognition of Palestine will “revive a prospect of peace in the region.”

POSSIBLE ULTIMATUM TO HAMAS

Item 1 of 3 Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a press conference about recognizing Palestinian statehood while Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand listens, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. REUTERS/Patrick Doyle [1/3] Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a press conference about recognizing Palestinian statehood while Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand listens, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. REUTERS/Patrick Doyle Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Israeli security cabinet member Zeev Elkin said on Wednesday that Israel could threaten to annex parts of Gaza to increase pressure on Hamas, eroding Palestinian hopes of statehood on land Israel now occupies.

Mediation efforts to secure a 60-day ceasefire and the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas ground to a halt last week.

In Gaza, resident Saed al-Akhras said the recognition of Palestine by major powers marked a “real shift in how Western countries view the Palestinian cause.”

“Enough!” he said. “Palestinians have lived for more than 70 years under killing, destruction and occupation, while the world watches in silence.”

Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza appealed for no recognition of a Palestinian state to come before their loved ones were returned.

“Such recognition is not a step toward peace but rather a clear violation of international law and a dangerous moral and political failure that legitimizes horrific war crimes,” the Hostages Family Forum said.

Netanyahu said this month he wanted peace with Palestinians but described any future independent state as a potential platform to destroy Israel, so control of security must remain with Israel.

His cabinet includes far-right members who openly demand the annexation of all Palestinian land. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that reestablishing Jewish settlements in Gaza was “closer than ever,” calling Gaza “an inseparable part of the Land of Israel.”

AID GOING IN, BUT NOT ENOUGH

A 2-year-old girl being treated for a build-up of brain fluid died overnight of hunger, her father told Reuters on Wednesday.

“Doctors said the baby has to be fed a certain type of milk,” Salah al-Gharably said by phone from Deir Al-Balah. “But there is no milk. She starved. We stood helpless.”

The deaths from starvation and malnutrition overnight raised the toll from such causes to 154, according to the Gaza health ministry, including at least 89 children, since the war’s start, most of them in recent weeks.

Israel said on Sunday it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and designate secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the United Nations and its partners had been able to bring more food into Gaza in the first two days of pauses, but the volume was “still far from enough.”

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led attacks on communities and military bases in southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed, including more than 700 civilians, and another 251 taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 60,000 people and laid waste to much of the territory, the Gaza health ministry says.

Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva and Michelle Nichols in New York and Matt Spetalnick; Writing by Tom Perry, Don Durfee and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Alison Williams, Bill Berkrot, Chris Reese and William Mallard

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US ambassador talks up success of controversial aid group after Gaza visit

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has talked up the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) after his visit to Gaza.

Huckabee and special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Gaza this morning to visit a GHF aid distribution point.

Huckabee said the pair went to “learn the truth” of GHF’s aid distribution.

The pair received a briefing from the Israel Defence Forces, Huckabee added.

The GHF also shared pictures of the visit and said they had now served more than 100 million meals in Gaza.

We brought you news earlier – see our 8.44 post – that the UN’s human rights office said that since late May, there had been 859 aid seekers killed “in the vicinity” of GHF sites.

The GHF operates in Israeli military zones and there have been near-daily reports of deaths.

The group has also come under criticism that its aid system is insufficient to meet Gaza’s needs.

Despite the talk of food distribution success on today’s visit, a UN-backed authority has been warning of a growing famine “catastrophe” in Gaza (see 11.30 post).