US-backed Gaza aid model ‘distraction from atrocities’, UNRWA chief says

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has condemned the new United States-backed aid model in Gaza, saying it is a “distraction from atrocities” taking place there, a day after chaotic scenes at an aid distribution centre in the coastal enclave.

On Tuesday, thousands of Palestinians clambered over fences to reach the humanitarian supplies at a distribution site run by the previously unknown, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), in Rafah, southern Gaza.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported at least one person was killed and dozens of others were wounded after forces opened fire.

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory, told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday that 47 Palestinians were wounded, mainly by Israeli gunfire, during the incident.

The Israeli military said its forces had fired warning shots nearby.

“We have seen yesterday the shocking images of hungry people pushing against fences, desperate for food. It was chaotic, undignified and unsafe,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo.

“I believe it is a waste of resources and a distraction from atrocities,” continued Lazzarini. “We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose”.

Philippe Lazzarini speaks during a press conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on May 28, 2025 [Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP]

“The clock is ticking towards famine, so humanitarian (work) must be allowed to do its life-saving work now,” said Lazzarini.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later acknowledged a “loss of control momentarily” at the centre, but a senior military official said the distribution was nonetheless “a success”.

Bypassing the UN

Israel has facilitated GHF’s efforts and says the model keeps supplies out of Hamas’s hands.

GHF has faced accusations of helping Israel fulfil its military objectives while excluding Palestinians, bypassing the UN system, and failing to adhere to humanitarian principles.

The GHF, backed by Israel and its close ally, the United States, said it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes, equivalent to 462,000 meals, since Israel eased an 11-week-old blockade of the war-shattered Palestinian enclave last week.

The UN and other international aid groups have boycotted the foundation, which they say undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to a conflict, based on need.

“The model of aid distribution proposed by Israel does not align with core humanitarian principles,” Lazzarini said on Wednesday.

“It will deprive a large part of Gaza, the highly vulnerable people, of desperately needed assistance,” he said.

He added: “We used to have, before, 400 distribution places, centres in Gaza. With this new system, we are talking about three to four, maximum, distribution places.

“So it’s also a way to incite people to be forcibly displaced to get humanitarian assistance,” he said.

As a trickle of aid has resumed, Israeli forces – now in control of wide areas of Gaza – have kept up their offensive, killing 3,901 Palestinians since a short ceasefire collapsed in mid-March, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

At least eight people were killed and others were wounded early on Wednesday after Israeli forces targeted the home of journalist Osama al-Arbid, who reportedly survived the strike, in the as-Saftawi area in the north of the territory.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 15 people have been killed by Israeli attacks since the early hours of Wednesday morning across Gaza.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that at least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,977, mostly civilians.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies