'Humanitarian pause' in Hamas-Israel war is urged to aid Gaza civilians

The United Nations, United States and Canada 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 Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip.

International pressure for unimpeded aid to Gaza rose as the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled coastal territory said Israeli air strikes had killed more than 700 Palestinians overnight. Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said this was the highest 24-hour death toll in Israel's two-week-old siege.

U.N. agencies were pleading "on our knees" for emergency aid to be let into Gaza unimpeded, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed to support the narrow strip's 2.3 million people amid widespread devastation from Israel's aerial blitz.