Israel will allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza starting on Friday, Israeli army radio quoted a military official as saying.

Israel has given a tour of a large storage site within Gaza containing what it claims to be 1,000 lorries-worth of aid that the UN has failed to deliver. The move on Thursday intensified a row with the international community, which has become increasingly critical of starvation levels in the Strip.

Israel said Thursday that the United Nations and other international aid agencies had restarted distribution of some humanitarian assistance to Palestinians after collecting more than 100 trucks of aid from its facilities just inside the border with Gaza.