Humanitarian leaders fear the besieged territory will soon be overwhelmed by disease and starvation, and are piling diplomatic pressure on Israel to boost efforts to protect civilians.

Israel military offensive has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed at least 17,997 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The death toll in Gaza has risen 17,000, mostly women and children, the Hamas-run health ministry said, with vast areas reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland of bombed-out and bullet-scarred buildings.

Even though the civilian death toll in the Palestinian territory is mounting and living conditions are described as catastrophic amid Israel's bombardment, the outcome of the session is up in the air.

As part of the pause in fighting, Hamas had freed scores of hostages taken during its bloody attack on Israel on Oct. 7 in exchange for the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.

The relief flights carrying food, medical supplies and winter gear are the first by the US military since the conflict began with the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Israeli prison authorities said 42 Palestinian inmates -- both male and female -- would be freed under the terms of the agreement

13 Israelis who had been held in the Gaza strip were freed as part of a cease fire

The majority of the hostages are Israeli civilians, some of them young children and elderly people.

The operation at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital brings to a head weeks of growing concern for the people trapped inside in grim conditions, and marks a key objective for Israel's campaign to destroy Hamas.

The hospitals in the centre of the heaviest north Gaza fighting have been forced out of service amid shortages and combat, the Hamas-run health ministry said Monday, adding the number of patients dying in the biggest medical centre had risen.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militant group poured across the border from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for a "ceasefire" in Gaza when he opened a conference on aid for the Palestinian territory, under bombardment by Israel since the October 7 attack by Hamas.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that the bombarded Gaza Strip was becoming a "graveyard for children," as he urged an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

President Joe Biden, when responding to a heckler at a Minnesota campaign event Wednesday night, said he thinks there should be a humanitarian "pause" in the Israeli-Hamas war to get "prisoners" out of Gaza.

The border authority in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said that Egypt had agreed to let in 81 of the most badly wounded on Wednesday through Rafah, the only crossing not controlled by Israel.

London's Jewish community has been on edge since Hamas's attack on Israel earlier this month, with security increased at synagogues, schools and other buildings.

Israel must protect innocent Gaza residents by distinguishing between Hamas militants and civilians, the White House warned Sunday, as world leaders stepped up calls for desperately needed humanitarian aid to reach the war-torn Palestinian territory.

The United Nations warned of a looming "unprecedented avalanche of human suffering" inside the Gaza Strip, after weeks of relentless Israeli bombing, while the General Assembly called for an "immediate humanitarian truce".

Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, the Islamist group which carried out brutal attacks on Israel on October 7, called Thursday for access for the Red Cross to treat their relatives.

After Washington accused Rusia of disrupting international order, Moscow answered by accusing it of escalating the conflict through military reinforcements

French President Emmanuel Macron evoked an international coalition along the lines of the one that defeated Islamic State (IS) extremists in Iraq and Syria to fight Palestinian militant group Hamas but such an idea will struggle to even get off the ground, experts say.

"I think we're at a very dangerous juncture," said Ajay Banga at the Future Investment Initiative

AFP journalists on Saturday saw 20 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, which is responsible for delivering aid from various UN agencies, pass through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza.

The State Department's advise comes as the Israel-Hamas war catalyzed numerous anti-U.S. demonstrations and some violent actions

Israelis living in border communities near the Gaza Strip are bracing for a long and hard war with Hamas -- some heeding evacuation calls but others staying put.

In all destinations of a whirlwind Middle East tour, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken showed off one of his best-known characteristics -- patience -- as he tried to steer the aftermath of Hamas's attack and Israel's response.

As Gaza's hospital morgues overflow with victims killed in Israel's bombardment triggered by a deadly Hamas attack, even an ice-cream truck has been used to hold corpses before their burial.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday began a tour of Arab capitals as he seeks to build pressure on Hamas while Israel readies a likely massive offensive on the Gaza Strip following the militants' attacks.

Benjamin Netanyahu's government had divided Israel with its controversial judicial reforms, but he now presides over a country which is united in its demand for a definitive reprisal against Hamas.