The White House has asked Congress for nearly $106bn to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and US border security, but offered no strategy for securing the money from a broken Congress.
US President Joe Biden's request for the funding comes days after he visited Israel and pledged solidarity as the country bombards Gaza following an attack by Hamas militants that killed 1,400 people in southern Israel.
By grouping Israel funding with Ukraine, border security, refugee assistance, measures to counter China and other hotly debated priorities, Mr Biden is hoping he has created a must-pass national security spending bill that can win support in a chaotic House of Representatives.
The chamber, which Republicans won control of last year, has been without a leader for more than two weeks.
Some Republican politicians have grown skeptical of the need to fund Ukraine's war with Russia, and have threatened to halt government altogether to put an end to debt-fueled fiscal spending.
"The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities," said Biden's budget director, Shalanda Young, in a letter to acting House speaker Patrick McHenry.
"I urge Congress to address them as part of a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement in the weeks ahead."
It come as US, Egyptian and Israeli diplomats are continuing to try to hammer out a deal under which humanitarian aid can start moving into Gaza.
It had been hoped that supplies of food, water, medicines and fuel would make it into Gaza this morning but an agreement remains illusive.
The newly appointed US Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues David Satterfield is still negotiating with Israeli and Egyptian officials on what is described as "the exact modalities" of how agreement will work.
More than 100 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid are already at Egypt's Rafah crossing with Gaza, but only 20 will be allowed in initially to ensure that the aid goes to humanitarian agencies and is not commandeered by the militant group Hamas.
Egyptian sources say that road building equipment was sent across the border to Gaza yesterday to repair damaged roads to ensure the convoys could get through.
A prerequisite for the trucks to roll, is that both Israeli and Hamas provide guarantees of safe passage.
Without such a temporary truce, the aid will not go in.
As Israel evacuates another town close to the Lebanese border due to fears of attack from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and continues with air strikes on targets in Gaza, Hamas has claimed a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City has been hit and there have been many casualties.
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Read more: Latest Middle East stories
Medicine, water purifiers and blankets were being unloaded at El Arish airport near Gaza, an AFP reporter saw, with Ahmed Ali, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent, saying he was getting "two to three planes of aid a day".
The situation inside Gaza is "beyond catastrophic", said Sara Alzawqari, UNICEF spokeswoman for the Gulf.
"Time is running out and the numbers of casualties amongst children are rising."
Egyptian state-linked broadcaster Al Qahera News had said the Rafah crossing - the only route into Gaza -- would open today, but Cairo later said it needed more time to repair roads.
In Geneva, the WHO's emergencies director called a deal struck by US President Joe Biden to allow in 20 trucks "a drop in the ocean of need".
"It should be 2,000 trucks," Michael Ryan said.
UN estimates around one million displaced people in Gaza
At least 30% of all housing units in Gaza have been either destroyed, rendered uninhabitable or damaged, according to the latest report from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Citing figures from the Ministry of Housing in Gaza, it says 12,845 have been destroyed, 9,055 have been rendered uninhabitable, while 121,000 have been moderately or lightly damaged since the start of the hostilities
The UN OCHA update says that 307 Palestinians had been killed in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 3,785.
Quoting figures provided by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, it says the death toll includes 1,524 children, adding that hundreds of additional fatalities are believed to be trapped under the rubble.
Israel says figures provided by authorities inside Gaza cannot be believed because the agencies are controlled by Hamas.
The UN says the number of internally displaced persons in Gaza is estimated at about one million, including over 527,500 people staying in 147 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters in increasingly dire conditions.
The UN report describes the Israeli blockade as a "complete siege" and says "desperately needed humanitarian aid" is urgently required.
It warns that people consume more and more water from unsafe sources, risking death and placing the population at risk of infectious disease outbreak.
It observes that Palestinian armed groups continue to fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli population centres.
It cites the UN Secretary General as calling on Hamas to release the more than 200 hostages it holds immediately and unconditionally.
Additional reporting: AFP
