Countries including the United States, Canada, Russia and Arab states have pushed for a pause or ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip so humanitarian aid could be delivered to besieged Palestinian civilians.
Late on Tuesday eight trucks with water, food and medicine entered the enclave from Egypt.
Nearly three weeks after Hamas militants shocked Israel with an attack on southern Israeli towns in a rampage that killed 1400 mostly civilians, world leaders sought to prevent the conflict from spreading.
US President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by phone on Tuesday and agreed on broader diplomacy "to maintain stability across the region and prevent the conflict from expanding," the White House said.
Deadly clashes have intensified between the Israeli military and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and resurged between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed, heavily armed Hezbollah group along the Israeli-Lebanon border. Any wider conflict would jeopardise security in a region key to global energy supplies.
The US has advised Israel to hold off on a planned ground assault as Washington tries to free more of the 200-plus hostages Hamas is still holding captive in Gaza.
Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, told the Security Council on Tuesday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had attempted to wrongly blame Iran for the Israel-Hamas war.
"Our commitment to regional peace and stability remains unwavering," he said. "The US has further exacerbated the conflict by overtly aligning itself with the aggressor at the expense of the innocent Palestinian population."
In a statement released on social media, the Palestinian health ministry said at least 5791 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli bombardments since October 7, including 2360 children.
Reuters could not independently verify the ministry figures.
At the UN, the US and Russia put forward rival plans on humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians. Washington has called for pauses and Russia wants a humanitarian ceasefire. A pause is generally considered less formal and shorter than a ceasefire.
"The whole world is expecting from the Security Council a call for a swift and unconditional ceasefire," Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council. "This is precisely what is not in the American draft. Therefore, we don't see any point in it, and we cannot support it."
Arab states firmly back a call for a humanitarian ceasefire amid widespread destruction of Gaza's buildings in Israel's aerial bombardment.
"We followed with regret the inability of this council twice to adopt a resolution or even to call for a ceasefire to end this war," Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the council.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
"While we remain opposed to a ceasefire, we think humanitarian pauses linked to the delivery of aid that still allow Israel to conduct military operations to defend itself are worth consideration," a senior US official said.
Eight trucks containing water, food and medicine entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt late on Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The first aid convoy crossed into Gaza from Egypt on Saturday, but UN agencies said more than 20 times current deliveries were needed for the narrow coastal strip's 2.3 million people.
"There are a lot of conversations going on now about the need for humanitarian pauses and I think that's something Canada supports," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.
Remember rules, Macron urges Israel
French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting Israel on Tuesday, told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that France stood "shoulder to shoulder" with Israel in its war with Hamas but that it must not fight "without rules".
Netanyahu said Israel would try to protect civilians as it worked to ensure they "will no longer live under Hamas tyranny".
There appeared to be little prospect of a ceasefire any time soon in the bloodiest chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, with civilian suffering spreading.
Asked about the difference between a humanitarian pause and ceasefire, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters: "It's a question of duration and scope and size and that kind of thing."
After an air strike in Khan Younis in south Gaza, Abdallah Tabash held his dead daughter Sidra, refusing to let go as he held her bloodstained face and hair.
"I want to look at her as much as I can," he said.
Israeli tanks and troops are massed on the border between Israel and Gaza awaiting orders for an expected ground invasion. It is an operation that may be complicated by fears for the hostages' welfare and by militants heavily armed by Iran dug into a crowded urban setting using a vast network of tunnels.
Hospitals running out of fuel
Doctors in Gaza say patients arriving at hospitals are showing signs of disease caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation after more than 1.4 million people fled their homes for temporary shelters.
All hospitals say they are running out of fuel to power their electricity generators, leaving them increasingly unable to treat the injured and ill. More than 40 medical centres have halted operations, a health ministry spokesman said.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, warned in a post on messaging platform X that it would halt operations in Gaza on Wednesday night because of the lack of fuel. However, the Israeli military on Tuesday reaffirmed it would bar the entry of fuel to prevent Hamas from seizing it.
'I've been through hell'
Qatari mediators are urging Hamas to quicken the pace of hostage releases to include women and children and to do so without expecting Israeli concessions, said three diplomats and a source in the region familiar with the talks.
The Gulf state, in coordination with the US, is leading mediation talks with Hamas and Israel over the release of hostages captured in the group's October 7 attack.
Hamas on Monday freed two Israeli women who were among the more than 200 hostages taken by gunmen during their mass infiltration on October 7 - the third and fourth to be released.
One of those freed, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, said she was beaten by militants as she was abducted and had difficulty breathing.
"They stormed into our homes. They beat people. They kidnapped others, the old and the young without distinction," she said, seated in a wheelchair and speaking in barely a whisper to reporters outside a Tel Aviv hospital.
"I've been through hell," Lifshitz said.
Inside Gaza, a group of hostages were led into what Lifshitz called a "spider's web" of damp tunnels and eventually reached a large hall where, under 24-hour guard, a doctor visited every other day and brought them medicines they needed.
