Nearly 800 people have died trying to access aid in Gaza since late May, with most killed near the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's sites, the UN said Friday.

An officially private effort, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking warnings of imminent famine.

Since those operations began and through July 7, United Nations rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the agency had recorded "615 killings in the vicinity of the GHF sites".

Another 183 people had been killed "presumably on the routes of aid convoys" carried out by UN and other aid organisations, she told reporters in Geneva.

"This is nearly 800 people who have been killed while trying to access aid," she said, adding that "most of the injuries are gunshot injuries".

GHF operations, which effectively sidelined a vast UN aid delivery network in Gaza, have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.

Shamdasani highlighted that the UN rights office had repeatedly raised "serious concerns about respect for international humanitarian law principles" in the war in Gaza, which erupted following Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel.

"Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where they are being attacked, where... they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable," she said.