TOKYO, May 28, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees hit out Wednesday at the new US-backed aid model in Gaza, a day after chaotic scenes during a distribution in the war-battered territory.

The United States announced in early May the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), sidelining the United Nations. Israel has facilitated GHF's efforts and says the model keeps supplies out of Hamas's hands.

On Tuesday there were chaotic scenes as thousands of Palestinians rushed into a GHF aid distribution centre in Rafah in southern Gaza, AFP reporters said.

"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 said in Japan.

"I believe it is a waste of resources and a distraction from atrocities. We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose," the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said.

"Meanwhile, the clock is ticking towards famine, so humanitarian (work) must be allowed to do its life-saving work now," the Swiss told reporters.

- 'Success' -

Tuesday's scenes came days after the partial easing of a total aid blockade on the territory that Israel imposed on March 2, leading to severe shortages of food and medicine.

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".

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 model of aid distribution proposed by Israel does not align with core humanitarian principles," Lazzarini said 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.

- Criticism -

UNRWA has withstood a barrage of criticism and accusations from Israel since Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel and the devastating war in Gaza that followed.

Some 1,218 people were killed in that attack, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's allegation that some UNRWA staff took part spurred a string of nations last year -- including Japan -- to at least temporarily halt their backing for the already cash-strapped agency.

Hamas militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

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.