GENEVA — At least 1,054 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to access food aid in Gaza, the United Nations’ human rights office said in a statement Tuesday.

“Palestinians in Gaza are starving to death,” the statement said.

Desperate, hungry people are approaching aid sites run by the controversial Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the statement said, “even though between May 27 and July 21, 1,054 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza while trying to access food.”

The GHF began operating in the Gaza Strip on May 27. Some 766 people were killed in the vicinity of their sites since then, the UN office said, while 288 were killed around aid convoys run by groups including the UN.

CNN has reached to the Israel Defense Forces for comment. In a post on X, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Hamas of shooting civilians trying to collect aid, but did not provide any evidence for this.

“The deaths and the horrendous physical and psychological suffering caused by hunger are the result of Israel’s interference with and militarization of humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” the UN’s statement said. “The Israeli military must immediately stop shooting at people trying to get food. Firearms must never be used simply to disperse a crowd, even as a warning.”

The UN office called on Israel to allow more humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip and lift its restrictions on the UN and other humanitarian groups in the enclave. — CNN