United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday criticized an Israel-initiated and U.S.-backed humanitarian aid distribution plan for the Gaza Strip as a "fig leaf for further violence and displacement" of Palestinians in the war-torn enclave.

"It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction," Fletcher told the U.N. Security Council.

No humanitarian aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation, a quarter of the enclave's population.