The World Health Organisation (WHO) cancelled another planned medical aid mission to Gaza on Wednesday over security concerns, the sixth such cancellation in two weeks.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was the sixth mission to northern Gaza cancelled by the UN agency because requests to visit had not been approved or assurances over security provided since its last visit, on December 26.
"Intense bombardment, restrictions on movement, fuel shortage and interrupted communications make it impossible for WHO and our partners to reach those in need," he told a virtual press conference from Geneva.
"We call on Israel to approve requests by WHO and other partners to deliver humanitarian aid," he added.
The Israeli offensive launched in the wake of a rampage by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7 has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population, left many homes and civilian infrastructure in ruins, and caused acute shortages of food, water and medicine.
The WHO said on Wednesday only 15 hospitals in Gaza remain functional, even partially.
Gaps in Gaza ceasefire talks under way in Qatar between Israel and Hamas can be bridged but it may take more than a few days to reach a deal, Israeli officials said on Tuesday.
King Charles welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to Britain on Tuesday for the first state visit by a European leader since Brexit, their warm greeting symbolising the return of closer ties between the two countries.
US President Donald Trump held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, while Israeli officials continued indirect negotiations with Hamas aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.
Search teams plodded through muddy riverbanks and flew aircraft over flood-ravaged central Texas as hopes dimmed of finding survivors from a disaster that has claimed at least 96 lives, many of them children.
Four workers were killed and at least 22 others were injured in a fire that broke out on Monday at a key data centre in Cairo, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the spokesperson at Egypt's Health Ministry, told Reuters on Tuesday.