David Satterfield

Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues (2023-2024)

Current: Director, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy 

While leading U.S. coordination for humanitarian aid in the Middle East, David Satterfield actively covered up mass starvation and lack of medical aid, buying time for Israel by falsely assuring the public that the U.S. was committed to facilitating the flow of aid into Gaza. 

In public statements, Satterfield insisted that Biden privately and publicly advocated that Israel “must do more to protect civilians, to facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and to enable its safe and unhindered distribution inside of Gaza.” But after stepping down as the Gaza envoy in April 2024, Satterfield on multiple occasions admitted that Israel had the means and ability to distribute food, medicine, and aid to people in Gaza, but that “the will” to do so “has never been present.” 

In one of these interviews, dated September 2024, Satterfield added, “I disagree fundamentally with any assessment, whether [International Court of Justice] or other, that there is a deliberate Israeli policy attempt to starve the people of Gaza. I do not believe the evidence supports such an assertion.” 

By this time, human-rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) had already declared that Israel was “using starvation as a weapon of war,” which amounted to a war crime.