The Palestinian population occupied a controversial distribution site for the Gaza that was established by a controversial U.S. and Israeli-backed group in Gaza, the day after it began working there.

Video shows people crossing broken fences and earth fortresses at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) compound in the southern city of Rafa.

The group said its team took a step back at one point because the number of people seeking assistance was so large. Israeli military said nearby troops fired warning guns.

GHF, which uses the U.S. armed security contractor, aims to bypass the United Nations as a major supplier of Gaza aid, which experts warn of an imminent famine following an 11-week Israeli lockdown that has recently alleviated.

The UN said Rafa’s video was “heartbreaking” and had a detailed plan to provide adequate assistance to the 2.1 million people.

The United Nations and many aid organizations have refused to work with the GHF program, which they say contradicts humanitarian principles and appears to be "weapon aid."

They warned that the system would effectively rule out those with mobility issues, forcing further displacement, exposing thousands of people to harm, conditioning political and military goals, and providing unacceptable precedent for aid worldwide.

Israel said it needed to replace the current aid system to stop Hamas from stealing aid, which the group denied doing.

GHF announced on Monday that it had “beginned operations in Gaza” and began providing supplies to Palestinians at its distribution sites.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military confirmed that two locations near Tal al-Sultan in Rafah and the Morag Corridor - an eastern and western military zone that separates the city from the rest of Gaza - began distributing food to families.

Around the same time, Israeli and Palestinian media shared a long line of Palestinians on the Tal al-Sultan website.

But just over an hour later, they began posting videos showing thousands of men, women and children flowing into the compound. In one clip, some people are seen running and dodging because it seems that gunfire is coming.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene as people seized food packages and other aid from the scene. They also said that Israeli troops stationed nearby opened fire.

A man told the BBC Arabic Middle East daily radio program. "In the end, chaos broke out - people climbed through the gates, attacked others, and took everything (aid)."

"It was a humiliating experience," he added. "We suffered a huge suffering of hunger. We were just looking for a little sugar to make a cup of tea and a piece of bread to eat."

One woman said hunger and poverty “overwhelm everyone”.

“People are exhausted – willing to do anything, even risk their lives – just to find food and feed their children.”

A statement from GHF acknowledged that “local demand is great” and said it has distributed about 8,000 food boxes – each food box (each person can feed five and a half).

However, it said Palestinians experienced several hours of delays when entering a location “due to the lockdown imposed by Hamas.”

In the late afternoon, the number of SBS (Safely Allocated Location) brought the GHF team backwards to make a few Gazans safely aid and dissipate. This is done under the GHF protocol to avoid casualties. Normal action has resumed. ”

The IDF said its troops had fired warnings in areas outside the compound.

"Control control over the situation is established and food distribution operations are expected to proceed as planned, and the security of IDF forces is not compromised," it said.

The government media office run by Hamas, Gaza, said Israel's efforts to distribute aid were "deeply defeated".

At a press conference in New York, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said: "We have been watching videos of Gaza at one of the distribution points set by the Humanitarian Foundation of Gaza. Frankly, these videos, these images, are heartbreaking."

He added: “We and our partners have developed a detailed, principled, operational rational plan supported by Member States to obtain assistance to the desperate population. We continue to emphasize that the meaningful scale of humanitarian action is crucial to avoid famine and meet the needs of all civilians.”

A U.S. State Department spokesperson called the UN's criticism "a height of hypocrisy."

"It's unfortunate because the problem here is helping Gaza and then suddenly it gets into complaints about the nature of the style or who is doing whom," Tammy Bruce told reporters.

The GHF initially planned to establish four distribution sites in southern and central Gaza, where Palestinians will be able to collect food and other aid for their families. By the end of the week, it said, it aims to feed a million people (less than half of them).

The purpose of these locations is to be ensured by US contractors that Israeli forces patrol around. In order to access them, Palestinians are expected to have identity checks and screen for participation with Hamas.

The United Nations and other aid agencies insist that they will not cooperate with any programs that fail to respect humanitarian humanitarianism, impartiality, independence and neutrality.

On Sunday night, Jake Wood resigned as executive director of GHF, saying the organization's system could not work in a way that could carry out these principles.

GHF's ​​board rejected criticism and accused "those who benefited from the status quo" more focused on "tearing it apart than getting aid."

The group also claimed that Hamas posed a death threat to NGOs in support of its distribution locations and attempted to prevent civilians from receiving assistance.

Hamas publicly warned Palestinians not to cooperate with the GHF system.

Israel imposed a blockade of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies on Gaza on March 2 and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. It said the steps were designed to put pressure on armed groups to release 58 hostages still in Gaza, with as many as 23 of them believed to be alive.

On May 19, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive, and Benjamin Netanyahu said the troops would "control all areas of Gaza." The plan reportedly included the complete removal of civilians to the north and forcibly relocating them to the south.

Netanyahu also said Israel will temporarily ease the lockdown and allow "basic" food in Gaza to prevent famine under pressure from U.S. allies.

Since then, Israeli authorities have said they have allowed at least 665 trucks of humanitarian aid, including flour, baby food and medical supplies, to enter Gaza.

But the head of the UN World Food Program warned on Sunday that aid was just a “barrel” as what the territory needed reversed catastrophic hunger levels amid massive shortages of basic food and skyrocketing prices.

According to an assessment of the unsupported Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC), 500,000 people are facing hunger in the coming months.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023 in response to Hamas' cross-border attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed and another 251 were taken hostage.

At least 54,056 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,901 in the past 10 weeks, according to the Hamas-and Health Ministry in the region.