The United Nations sounded the alarm over the humanitarian situation in the besieged territory, warning that food shortages could lead to an "explosion" of preventable child deaths.

With prospects for truce talks dimmed, the United States and other governments, as well as the United Nations, have issued increasingly urgent appeals to Israel to call off its planned offensive on Rafah.

Killings of reporters would have dropped globally year-on-year had it not been for the deaths in that conflict, the CPJ said, although fatalities were stable in Somalia and the Philippines.

Australia, Canada and New Zealand warned Israel "not to go down this path", issuing a rare joint statement in the latest urgent appeal seeking to avert further mass civilian casualties.

A Hamas source told AFP that a delegation was headed to the Egyptian capital to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators, after Israeli negotiators held talks with the mediators on Tuesday.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Cairo on Tuesday for a new round of talks on a Qatari-brokered ceasefire proposal that would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages.

Israel is preparing for a ground incursion into the teeming city along the border with Egypt, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge from fighting further north.

Milei joined Israel's President Isaac Herzog on a visit to Nir Oz near the border with Gaza, where residents were killed or taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has ordered troops to "prepare to operate" in Rafah, the last major town in the Gaza Strip Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.

The diplomat was due to meet Israel's leaders as part of a Middle East crisis tour after earlier stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.

The last time six-year-old Hind Rajab was heard from, she was surrounded by dead relatives and trapped in the family's car after it came under fire in war-ravaged Gaza City.

The trip, Blinken's fifth to the region since the start of the nearly four-month-long war, will later include stops in Israel and Qatar.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the bill, backed by House of Representatives Republicans, is "another cynical political maneuver."

On a cold and rainy Sunday in Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis joined events to mark 100 days since Hamas militants attacked Israel, sparking a retaliation that has since taken tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.

Israel's defence minister has laid out for the first time preliminary plans for the post-war administration of Gaza, saying neither Israel nor Hamas will rule the Palestinian territory after hostilities there conclude.

The continued air strikes and the expansion of operations in the south came as the WHO warned on Wednesday that Gaza's population was in "grave peril", with France's president calling for a long-term ceasefire.

Sigrid Kaag's appointment comes as the people of Gaza face a dire humanitarian emergency, with aid slowed to a trickle by Israel's continued bombardment of the densely populated coastal strip.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's leaders have repeatedly vowed to keep up their offensive until Hamas is destroyed, and army chief Herzi Halevi signaled there would be no quick end to the war.

The declarations came as the World Health Organization on Monday reported "harrowing" accounts of entire families killed from Christmas Eve strikes on a refugee camp in Gaza.

In the besieged Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run ministry of health said early Monday Israeli strikes had killed at least 18 people in the southern city of Khan Yunis, the centre of recent fighting.

Israel faced another round of global pressure on Tuesday for a ceasefire in Gaza with a new UN vote and fresh Western diplomatic efforts, although the United States vowed to continue arming its ally.

For years, the group's major backer has been Tehran. Estimates put Iran's annual contribution at between $70 million and $100 million.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, the war has killed more than 18,700 people, mostly women and children.

The war, now in its third month, began after the October 7 attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is having a severe impact on the Palestinian economy, according to the World Bank, which now estimates sharp economic contraction this year and next.

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.