NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that hungry people in Gaza seeking food must not face a `death sentence` as controversy swirls around a new USand Israeli-backed distribution system.

In Geneva, medical aid NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called for the distribution system to be halted, branding it `slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid`.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) `is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies`, an MSF statement said.

`With over 500 people killed and nearly 4,000 wounded while seeking food, this scheme is slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid and must be immediately dismantled,` MSF said.

In his statement, the UN chief went on to say: `People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence.

Guterres did not explicitly name the GHF, whose operations have led to near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people desperate to get food.

`Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarised zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people, Guterres added.

More than 500 people have been killed near aid centres since late last month while seeking scarce supplies.

The GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

Starting in March, Israel blocked deliveries of food and other crucial supplies into Gaza for more than two months, leading to warnings that the entire population of the occupied Palestinian territory is at risk of famine.

The United Nations says Israel`s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is illegal under international law.

The densely populated Gaza Strip has been largely flattened by Israeli bombing since the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas raid in Israel.

Israel began allowing food supplies to trickle in at the end of last month, using GHF backed by armed US contrac-tors, with Israeli troops on the perimeter to run operations.

`The problem of the distribution of humanitarian aid must be solved. There is no need to reinvent the wheel with dangerous schemes,` Guterres said.

The UN and major aid groups have refused to work with the GHF, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals and that it violates basic humanitarian principles by working with one of the sides in a conflict.

`We have the solution a detailed plan grounded in the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. We have the supplies. We have the experience. Our plan is guided by what people need,` said the UN chief.

He said a `handful` of medical supplies crossed into Gaza this week, the first shipment in months.

`A trickle of aid is not enough. What`s needed now is a surge _ the trickle must become an ocean,` said Guterres.

He added that as the world focuses on the conflict between Israel and Iran, the suffering of Palestinians must not be`pushed into the shadows`, calling for `political courage for a ceasefire.

Concerns about neutrality There are also concerns about the neutrality of GHF, officially a private group with opaque funding.

The UN and major aid groups have refused to work with it, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals and that it violates basic humanitarian principles.

MSF said the way GHF distributes food aid supplies `forces thousands of Palestinians, who have been starved by an over 100 day-long Israeli siege, to walk long distances to reach the four distribution sites and fight for scraps of food supplies`.

`These sites hinder women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities from accessing aid, and people are killed and wounded in the chaotic process,` it said.

Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF`s emergency coordinator in Gaza, said the four sites were all under the full control of Israeli forces, surrounded by watch points and barbed wire.-AFP