The United States and Russia have called for an end to fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.
However, Israel continues to bomb areas populated by Palestinians living in squalid conditions.
A total of 704 Palestinians, including 305 children, were killed in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the Health Ministry said, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
This is the highest daily death toll since the conflict started three weeks ago.
Israel began its offensive on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas militants attacked villages in southern Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
World leaders are now scrambling to prevent the conflict from spreading to a region critical to global energy supplies.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke on the phone and agreed on extensive diplomacy “to maintain stability across the region and prevent the conflict from expanding,” the White House said.
Deadly clashes between Israeli and Palestinian forces broke out again on the Israel-Lebanon border between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Iran, which has sought regional dominance for decades, backs Hezbollah and Hamas and has warned Israel to halt its attacks on Gaza.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday that its warplanes struck Syrian military infrastructure and mortars in response to missiles fired by Iran’s ally Syria.
The army did not provide further details nor did it blame the Syrian army for firing two rockets into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and for sounding its air raid sirens.
Israeli forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians in the West Bank and then hit them with military drones during an overnight attack, the Israeli military said on Wednesday. Palestinian officials said three people were killed.
The Israeli military also said it targeted a cell of Hamas divers trying to enter Israel by sea near Kibbutz Zikim. Hamas has not commented on the incident.
The US has advised Israel to delay a planned ground attack as it seeks to rescue more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
But when asked if he urged Israel to delay a ground attack, US President Joe Biden said: “The Israelis are making their own decisions.”
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tried to falsely blame Iran for the war between Israel and Hamas, Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeed told the Security Council on Tuesday.
“Our commitment to regional peace and stability remains unwavering,” he said. ” The U.S. has further exacerbated the conflict by overtly aligning itself with the aggressor at the expense of the innocent Palestinian population,” further alleged.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on social media that at least 5,791 Palestinians, including 2,360 children, were killed in Israeli shelling since October 7.
On Tuesday evening, eight trucks loaded with water, food and medicine entered Gaza from Egypt. UN agencies say the 2.3 million people living on the narrow coast need 20 times more energy.
At the United Nations, the United States and Russia presented competing plans to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.
The United States called for a brief halt, but Russia wanted a humanitarian ceasefire. A truce 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 U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council.
Arab countries strongly support calls for a humanitarian ceasefire amid widespread destruction of buildings in Gaza.
“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.
“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 worthy of consideration,” a senior U.S. official said.
