Controversial US-backed group says it has begun aid distribution in Gaza bbc.com

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A controversial new aid distribution group backed by the US and Israel has begun working in Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said lorry loads of food had been delivered to secure sites on Monday and that distribution had begun. Hundreds of Palestinians collected food parcels from a site in southern city of Rafah on Tuesday.

The GHF, which uses armed American security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to the 2.1 million people in Gaza, where experts have warned of a looming famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade that was recently eased.

A UN spokesman said the operation was a "distraction from what is actually needed" and urged Israel to reopen all crossings.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said in a statement that two distribution sites located in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah and the Morag Corridor, which separates the city from the rest of Gaza, had begun operating and distributing food to thousands of families.

Hundreds of Palestinians were seen queueing at the site in Tal al-Sultan, where food parcels were handed out by Palestinian workers.

"We stood in a long queue. We did not deal with the Israeli army or any American staff," one recipient told a local journalist.

A Palestinian working with one of the local companies involved in the operation told the BBC that "dozens of Palestinian workers from three Palestinian companies are overseeing the distribution process, which runs daily from 09:00 to 19:00".

The employee, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media, added: "The distribution is co-ordinated with five American security personnel, who are present on-site, but there are no Israelis involved in the process."

But many Palestinians stayed away from the sites.

A man who was still living in Khan Younis despite an Israeli evacuation order said he would "refuse to accept American aid under these terms", and warned that it marked the beginning of a "broader strategy of displacement".

When asked to comment on the GHF's work by reporters in Geneva, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Laerke, said: "We do not participate in this modality for the reasons that we have given."

"It is a distraction from what is actually needed, which is the reopening of all the crossings into Gaza, a secure environment within Gaza, and faster facilitation of permissions and final approvals of all the emergency supplies that we have just outside the border," he added.