The Trump administration is working with the Israeli government on a plan to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and end Israel’s two-month blockade on food and fuel deliveries, according to the US State Department. Aid workers have raised serious doubts about the approach.

The mechanism has yet to be finalised, but the general idea is to establish a handful of distribution zones that would each serve food to several hundred thousand Palestinians, according to two Israeli officials and a United Nations diplomat.

They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal, and The New York Times also reviewed briefing papers that detail the proposal and confirmed their authenticity with diplomats and officials.

The Israeli military would be stationed beyond the sites’ perimeters, allowing aid workers to distribute the food without the direct involvement of the soldiers or the officials, the briefing papers said.

The plan marks the first time that the Trump administration has been drawn into such detailed discussions about aid delivery in the Gaza Strip.

But the plan’s feasibility remains unclear. While any resumption of food deliveries would help address rising hunger in Gaza, the project has been criticised by aid agencies.

The UN said it had too many reservations to participate.

In a briefing paper, the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said the proposal would force vulnerable civilians to walk longer distances to get to the few distribution hubs, making it harder to get food to those who need it most.

Under the current system, the UN said, there are 400 distribution points.

The new one, it said, “drastically reduces this operational reach, raising the prospects that large segments of the population would be left without food and other essential supplies”.

At a media briefing on May 9, Mr Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said the criticism was “not accurate”, adding that “there will not be that long a distance to get to the distribution points”.

The ambassador also said more distribution points would be built in the future, making it easier for civilians to access them.

It is still unclear which aid groups will take part.

The UN briefing paper said that the project could be a backhanded means of forcibly displac...