Israel allowed 90 lorries carrying critical aid into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the UN said, as international pressure intensifies over the Israeli military's renewed offensive and blockade on the enclave.

Three days after Israel announced it would permit limited deliveries, the UN collected goods from the Karam Abu Salem crossing and sent them into Gaza, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.

In Gaza, the Hamas government media office reported the arrival of 87 aid lorries, which it said were allocated to international and local organisations to meet “urgent humanitarian needs”.

Five lorries entered Gaza on Monday with the first delivery of aid for the Palestinian territory's 2.3 million people since Israel imposed a blockade on March 2.

The first aid distributions in Gaza since early March came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a “temporary ceasefire”, but the military aimed to bring the entire territory under its control.

He added it was necessary to “avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action” in Gaza.

Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies. Israel has meanwhile kept up its bombardment, with Gaza's Health Ministry reporting on Wednesday that the bodies of 82 people were taken to hospitals across the territory over the previous 24 hours.

Hundreds of lorries were entering Gaza each day during a ceasefire from January to March but the stockpile has run low and the blockade has resulted in shortages of food and medicine.

Mounting pressure

This month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said Gaza's entire population was at risk of famine. Health authorities in the enclave have said dozens of people, many of them children, have died from hunger.

Far-right members of Israel's government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both settlers, are strongly opposed to the move, which they say would be a “gift to Hamas”.

A US-backed private group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which will use contractors, said that it will start moving aid into the territory in “coming days”. The UN and traditional agencies have said they will not co-operate with the foundation which some have accused of working with Israel.

The GHF has said it will distribute some 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.

Israel has faced mounting pressure, including from traditional allies, to halt its expanded offensive and allow aid into Gaza. EU foreign ministers agreed on Tuesday to review the bloc's co-operation accord, which includes trade, with Israel.

Sweden said it would press the 27-nation bloc to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador.

Pope Leo XIV described the situation in Gaza as “worrying and painful” and called for “the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid”.

Gaza's health ministry said at least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall death toll to 53,655, mostly civilians.