THE director of the United Nations World Food Programme said late on Sunday that the UN body has “paused” its distribution of humanitarian aid from a US-built pier off Gaza.

Cindy McCain said she was “concerned about the safety of our people” after what had been one of the deadliest days of the war there.

Saturday saw both an Israeli military assault that freed four hostages but left 274 Palestinians and one Israeli commando dead.

Ms McCain told CBS’s Face the Nation: “Right now we’re paused.”

She said: “I’m concerned about the safety of our people after the incident yesterday,” McCain said, referring to a warehouse complex that was hit by a rocket.

Ms McCain said that one staffer was injured but “everybody else is fine.

“We’ve stepped back for the moment,” and want “to make sure that we’re on safe terms and on safe ground before we’ll restart. But the rest of the country is operational. We’re doing everything we can in the north and the south.”

She added: “That’s why a ceasefire is necessary. That’s why we need to stop this,” so that aid can flow into Gaza “at scale.”

Sunday’s pause is the latest setback for the sea route the US claims was set up to try to bring more aid to Gaza’s starving people.

The UN agency gave no further details, including how long the pause would last. 

After widespread claims that the pier was used by the Israelis in Saturday’s mission that killed 241 Palestinians, US Central Command posted on the X social media site that neither the pier nor any of its equipment, personnel or other assets were used in the Israeli operation. 

In a separate statement USAid said that no humanitarian workers were involved in the Israeli operation.