MughrabiUNITED NATIONS/CAIRO (Reuters) -The U.S.-backed group distributing aid in Gaza opened a third site on Thursday and said more would open in coming weeks as the arrival of thousands of Palestinians seeking desperately needed supplies has tested the capacity of the new system.

Israel is facing growing international pressure as aid distribution efforts in Gaza devolved into chaos during the first days of a controversial new mechanism backed by the United States and Israel.

A U.S.-backed group that is slated to take over aid distribution in Gaza says it's started operations despite opposition from the U.N. and the unexpected resignation of its executive director.

A video from April 2024 showing humanitarian aid airdropped near a Gaza beach has been miscaptioned in online posts as footage of China delivering aid to Gaza in May amid an Israeli blockade that began in March.

Hundreds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations food warehouse in Gaza in a desperate attempt to get something to eat.

Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as "the hungriest place on earth".

Gaza has been subjected to forced starvation by Israel, a top UN official has told the BBC. Tom Fletcher told special correspondent Fergal Keane that the world has a responsibility to take greater action to get aid into Gaza and to "act to prevent genocide".