Gaza residents and merchants said this Wednesday, hours after desperate Palestinians overran a distribution site run by a United States (US)-backed group trying to start delivering aid.

The incidents underscore the problems getting supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing worsening hunger and starvation after a weeks-long Israeli blockade.

On Tuesday, Israeli troops fired warning shots as crowds rushed to a distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed group that began supplying aid under a new system which Israel hopes will prevent aid reaching Hamas.

The UN and other international aid groups have refused to take part, saying the scheme violates the principle that aid should be distributed neutrally, based only on need.

As the new system began, the Israeli military also allowed 95 trucks belonging to the UN and other aid groups into the enclave, but three Gaza residents and three merchants said a number of trucks were targeted by looters.

But Malik and Röhmeyer each warned that the rally may not last.

"There are reasons for caution after this spike," Malik wrote in the Tellimer note, citing drops in oil and cocoa prices, International Monetary Fund forecasts that implied a coming depreciation.

--Reuters--