Mr. Huckabee, a Baptist minister, is the first evangelical to serve as American ambassador to Israel. Christian conservatives and the Netanyahu government are pleased.

The officials will inspect aid distribution sites and "secure a plan to deliver more food," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Special Envoy Witkoff and Ambassador Huckabee will be traveling into Gaza on Friday to inspect the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground,

At least 60,430 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. A ministry statement said 98 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours, while 1,079 people were injured, taking the number of injuries to 148,722.

Israel is “engineering chaos and massacres” in the Gaza Strip by continuing to block aid deliveries and opening fire on starving Palestinians seeking desperately needed food supplies, a humanitarian official has warned.

Hospitals in Gaza reported the killing of more than a dozen people, eight of them food-seekers, by Israeli fire on Saturday as Palestinians endured severe risks in their search for food amid airdrops and restrictions on overland aid delivery.