The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that Israel's model for providing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip is a waste of resources and a "distraction from the atrocities", Reuters reported, BTA reported.
He criticized the chaotic distribution of humanitarian aid, led by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Thousands of Palestinians rushed desperately to a food distribution point in the Israeli-controlled town of Rafah, located in the southern part of the Palestinian enclave, on Sunday. Desperate hunger overcame caution about the biometric and other data checks that Israel said it would carry out at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation checkpoint.
"The aid distribution model proposed by Israel does not comply with basic humanitarian principles," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Tokyo.
"Yesterday we saw shocking footage of hungry people, desperate for food, pushing against fences. It was chaotic, undignified and dangerous," Lazzarini said. "I think this is a waste of resources and a distraction from the atrocities," he added, referring to the deaths of civilians during Israel's air and ground war in the small coastal enclave.
Israel says its military operations are targeting only Hamas-led militants and accuses the Palestinian Islamist group of using civilians as shields.
Israeli forces, which control large parts of Gaza, are continuing their offensive, with the Palestinian enclave's health ministry saying 3,901 Palestinians have been killed since a brief truce ended in mid-March.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is supported by Israel and its close ally the United States. The NGO said it had distributed about 8,000 food parcels, equivalent to 462,000 meals, since Israel last week eased an 11-week blockade of the war-torn enclave.
The UN and other international organisations have boycotted the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, saying it undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to the conflict and based on need.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce dismissed criticism of the aid programme.
Israel says one of the advantages of the new system for distributing aid is the ability to vet recipients to exclude anyone found to be affiliated with "Hamas". Israel accuses the Palestinian group of stealing supplies and using them to strengthen its position, a charge Hamas denies.