Nearly 800 people have died trying to access aid in Gaza since late May, with most killed near the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s sites, the UN said Friday.

An officially private effort, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking warnings of imminent famine.

Since those operations began and through July 7, United Nations rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the agency had recorded “615 killings in the vicinity of the GHF sites.”

Another 183 people had been killed “presumably on the routes of aid convoys” carried out by UN and other aid organizations, she told reporters in Geneva.

“This is nearly 800 people who have been killed while trying to access aid,” she said, adding that “most of the injuries are gunshot injuries.”

GHF operations, which effectively sidelined a vast UN aid delivery network in Gaza, have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.

The GHF, which said Thursday it had distributed more than 69 million meals to date, has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

The Israeli army has accused Hamas of being responsible for firing at civilians in the vicinity of aid centers.

The army said Friday it had issued instructions to Israel’s forces in the field “following lessons learned” after reports of deadly incidents at distribution facilities.

It explained that it “allows the American civilian organization (GHF) to distribute aid to Gaza residents independently, and operates in proximity to the new distribution zones to enable the distribution alongside the continuation of IDF operational activities in the Gaza Strip.”

“As part of this effort, IDF forces have recently worked to reorganize the area through the installation of fences, signage placement, the opening of additional routes, and other measures,” it said.

The army stressed that “following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted,” adding those incidents were “under review by the competent authorities in the IDF.”

Shamdasani highlighted that the UN rights office had repeatedly raised “serious concerns about respect for international humanitarian law principles” in the war in Gaza, which erupted following Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel.

“Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where they are being attacked, where... they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable,” she said.