UN aid chief slams Israel plan for Gaza aid

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday slammed a plan by Israel for the distribution of aid in the Gaza Strip as a "cynical sideshow, a deliberate distraction, a fig leaf for further violence and displacement".

He told the UN Security Council that no food, medicine, water or tents have entered the war-torn Palestinian enclave for more than 10 weeks. 

"We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians and not to Hamas, but Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians," Fletcher said. 

Israel, backed by the US, wants a new mechanism that bypasses the decades-long infrastructure set up by the UN to distribute aid.

- with reporting by Reuters