Middle East Israel bombards Gaza as world leaders call for pause in conflict to let aid in
Canada, the U.S. and the United Nations appealed on Tuesday for a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war to allow safe deliveries of aid to civilians short of food, water, medicine and electricity in the besieged Gaza Strip, Reuters reports.
International pressure for unimpeded aid to Gaza rose as the Hamas-run Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes had killed more than 700 Palestinians in Gaza overnight. Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said this was the highest 24-hour death toll in Israel's two-week-old siege of the Gaza Strip.
In a statement released on social media, the ministry said at least 5,791 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli bombardments since Oct. 7, including 2,360 children. About 704 were killed in the previous 24 hours alone, it said.
The Israeli military said that it killed dozens of Hamas fighters overnight while hitting more than 400 Hamas targets but that it would take time to destroy the Islamist militant group, whose deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7 shocked Israel.
UN agencies said they were on their knees pleading for emergency aid to be let into Gaza unimpeded, saying about 20 times more aid was needed than what was currently being delivered to support the narrow strip's 2.3 million people amid widespread devastation from Israel's aerial blitz.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said eight trucks containing water, food and medicine entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing late on Tuesday.
