Israel-Gaza live updates: Hamas to send a delegation to Cairo for negotiations

The World Food Programme warns that famine in the Gaza Strip is getting closer by the day and it could surpass famine thresholds of food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality in six weeks, according to an official.

"We estimate 30% of children below age of two is now acutely malnourished or wasted, and 70% of the population in the north is facing catastrophic hunger. There is reasonable evidence that all three famine thresholds -- food insecurity, malnutrition, mortality -- will be passed in the next six weeks," said Gian Carlo Cirri, the director of the World Food Programme's Geneva office.

"The conflict makes it so difficult and sometimes impossible to reach affected people that as humanitarians we usually don't -- for humanitarian principles, to abide to those principles -- we don't call for ceasefire. On these two contexts, we have no other choice than asking for a ceasefire. This is the only way for us as humanitarians, as World Food Programme, to access these people that are in acute needs."

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

More than 310 aid trucks entered Gaza Tuesday, the highest number of aid vehicles that have entered Gaza since the Israel-Hamas conflict began, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

"It needs now to be sustained & further increased," the agency said in a statement.

The UNRWA, which has been critical of the aid effort in Gaza, reiterated its calls for increased access for humanitarian groups to prevent famine in the region.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

Israel has dramatically increased the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, allowing on average 200 aid trucks a day, with some days as many as 400 trucks getting through, according to a top U.S. official.

Now, the focus needs to move beyond "counting trucks" and instead look to ensure the right supplies are being distributed throughout Gaza, according to David Satterfield, the State Department’s special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues.

"Our first priority was -- because it had to be -- averting famine," Satterfield told reporters on Tuesday. "But we now need to move on beyond that goal to addressing the true needs: sanitation, availability of medicines, availability of potable water, the specialized care required for these vulnerable populations."

The United Nations this week is conducting a more detailed assessment on the needs for the civilian population, Satterfield said.

He said the U.N. needs more trucks that are cleared by the Israeli military to operate inside Gaza. He also said the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel and an additional northern crossing must become accessible.

"Our work is focused every day, every hour, on seeing continuous progress made," he said.

-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty

The Israel Defense Forces has denied accusations from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry that they buried at least 283 bodies in a mass grave near Nasser Hospital in Gaza.

"The claim that the IDF buried Palestinian bodies is baseless and unfounded," the IDF said in a statement. "During the IDF’s operation in the area of Nasser Hospital, in accordance to the effort to locate hostages and missing persons, corpses buried by Palestinians in the area of Nasser Hospital were examined."

"The examination was conducted in a careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages," the IDF said. "Bodies examined, which did not belong to Israeli hostages, were returned to their place."

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said Tuesday that the reports of mass graves are "deeply concerning," but the White House is not in a place to validate the reports.

"I wouldn't expect a U.S. investigation," Kirby said, adding, "We'll certainly talk to our Israeli counterparts."