The embattled Israeli-backed aid group that began operating in Gaza earlier this week is not screening Palestinians at aid distribution sites, despite Israeli officials saying that additional security measures were a core reason for the creation of the new program.

Touted as a vital lifeline for Gazans facing starvation, the first week of the new plan has been beset by chaos.

Following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade on food going into Gaza, a new and contentious Israeli-backed aid distribution system has been unveiled in the territory. Critics, including the United Nations,

Hijazi described what he called 15 minutes of terror Thursday at the center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the private contractor that Israel says will replace the U.N. in feeding Gaza’s more than 2 million people.

Chaos erupted again as tens of thousands of desperate Palestinians tried to collect food from distribution sites in the Gaza Strip run by a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed foundation. Multiple

Hungry Palestinian children crowd a charity kitchen with pots and pans in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Friday. A day earlier, desperate Gazans broke into a U.N. World Food Program aid warehouse in central Gaza,