More than 170 charities and other NGOs are calling for the controversial aid distribution scheme in Gaza run by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to be shut down.

More than 500 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since the GHF started operating in late May, when Israel partially eased an 11-week total blockade, a joint statement says.

The organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, say Israeli forces and armed groups “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Israel denies its soldiers deliberately shoot at aid recipients and says the GHF’s system provides direct assistance to people who need it, bypassing Hamas interference.

The GHF said it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and that other organisations “stand by helplessly as their aid is looted”.

Tuesday’s joint statement from some of the world’s biggest charities and NGOs says the GHF is violating all norms of humanitarian work, including by forcing two million people into overcrowded and militarised zones where they face daily gunfire.

Since the GHF started operating in Gaza, there have been almost daily reports of Israeli forces killing people seeking aid at these sites, from medics, eyewitnesses and the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

On Tuesday, the ministry reported that a total of 583 people had been killed while seeking aid since 26 May, including 408 near the GHF’s distribution centres.

The GHF’s system replaced 400 aid distribution points that were operating during the last temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire with just four distribution sites located in Israeli militarised zones and run by US private security contractors – three in the far south-west of Gaza and one in central Gaza.

“Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” the NGOs warn in their joint statement.

“Orphaned children and caregivers are among the dead, with children harmed in over half of the attacks on civilians at these sites.”

In response to the criticism, a GHF spokesperson said: “We’ve delivered more than 52 million meals in just five weeks. Not talking points, not headlines, but food reaching Palestinian families every single day.”

“Meanwhile, other organisations stand by helplessly as their aid is looted. We’ve offered to help them deliver it safely. They’ve refused.”

They added: “The humanitarian community must return to its core mission – feeding people – not protecting outdated systems or avoiding the discomfort of change.”

On Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the GHF’s aid distribution system “inherently unsafe”, adding: “It is killing people.”

From the start the UN has opposed the plan, saying it would “militarise” aid, bypass the existing UN-led distribution network and force Gazans to make long journeys through dangerous territory to get food.

The Israeli military has said it is examining reports of civilians being “harmed” while approaching GHF aid distribution centres.

According to a report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday, unnamed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians near aid distribution sites to drive them away or disperse them.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the report, calling the allegations “malicious falsehoods”.

The Israeli military also denied allegations of deliberately firing at Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid.

In a statement on Monday, the IDF said it was reorganising access to the sites and this would include new “fencing” and signposting, including directional and warning signs in order to improve the operational response.

The GHF said in response to the Haaretz story that “there have been no incidents or fatalities at or in the immediate vicinity of any of our distribution sites”.

The 170-plus NGOs said the GHF’s system was “not a humanitarian response” for the Gazans.

“Amidst severe hunger and famine-like conditions, many families tell us they are now too weak to compete for food rations,” the groups said.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 56,647 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.