The Red Cross hopes to bring vital medical supplies and aid workers into Yemen  after receiving approval from the Saudi-led military coalition, an ICRC spokeswoman said. The aid agency has been negotiating for a week to deliver life-saving supplies and equipment to Yemen, where the coalition has conducted 11 days of air strikes against Iran-backed Shi'ite Houthis. The coalition now controls the country's ports and air space. The UN last week said that more than 500 people had been killed in two weeks of fighting in Yemen. On Saturday it called for a 24-hour humanitarian pause in the conflict to allow aid to reach people cut off by air strikes and to save the lives of 'streams of wounded'. But hopes of getting aid into the country by tomorrow are fading, as they seek clearance from Arab states waging the air strikes and hunt for planes prepared to fly to Yemen. Air strikes: It is thought about 500 people have been killed in two weeks of fighting in Yemen - but so far, the International Red Cross has not been able to gain entry to the Middle Eastern country . Carnage: The aid agency has been negotiating for a week to deliver life-saving supplies and equipment to Yemen, where the coalition has conducted 11 days of air strikes against Iran-backed Shi'ite Houthis . People stand on the rubble of houses destroyed by an air strike in Okash village near Sanaa over the weekend . Supporters of the Houthi rebels raise rifles as they shout slogans against the Saudi-led air strikes in Sanaa . Discussions: Pakistan is currently in talks about whether to enter the conflict - but the country's political leaders, like Imran Khan, who leads Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) party,  are urging diplomacy . 'Dialogue for peace': Members of Pakistan's civil society chant slogans against the Saudi-led coalition targeting Shiite rebels in Yemen, during a demonstration, in Lahore . 'We are still working on getting the plane to [the Yemeni capital] Sanaa. It's a bit difficult with the logistics because there are not that many companies or cargo planes willing to fly into a conflict zone,' said Marie Claire Feghali, a Red Cross spokesperson. The ICRC is aiming to get 48 tonnes of medical supplies into Yemen by plane. It is also trying to get staff by boat from Djibouti to Aden, but fighting has complicated efforts. Earlier today in Riyadh, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said arrangements had been made for at least one Red Cross aid delivery yesterday morning, but the ICRC - which deploys 300 aid workers to the Arab peninsula's poorest country - had pulled out of the arrangement. 'There was a trip fixed for them at nine this morning ... They informed us, after the time was set, of a request to delay the flight,' Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri told reporters yesterday, adding that this was because the company from which they had chartered the plane could not fly to Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition says it has set up a special coordination body for aid deliveries and asked NGOs and governments to work with it to ensure humanitarian aid can be brought into Yemen and foreign nationals can be evacuated safely. The news comes on the same day as war-weary Pakistan began talks to enter the conflict after its staunch Saudi allies issued an urgent request the country join the expanding coalition of Sunni Muslim nations fighting Shiite rebels in the country. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the special session of parliament last week, saying any decision on intervention could only come after proper debate. However, Pakistan's political leaders - including former cricketer Imran Khan, the head of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) party - are calling for diplomacy and a negotiated settlement, saying it does not want to get involved in any conflict that would inflame sectarian tensions. Intervention: Saudi soldiers take their position at Saudi Arabia's border with Yemen earlier today . Running away: Yemenis flee from the international airport neighborhood in the capital Sanaa . Under attack: Smoke and flames rise allegedly from Shiite Huthi rebels camps . Warzone: Yemenis stand beside trucks destroyed by an airstrike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition targeting Houthi rebel positions in Hais district in the western port city of Hodeidah yesterday . Blast: A Yemeni soldier inspects a truck destroyed by the Saudi-led coalition in Hodeidah yesterday . Grief: Yemeni women visit the graves of their relatives of Houthi supporters  killed during recent fighting. The UN last week said that more than 500 people had been killed in two weeks of fighting in Yemen . This morning Pakistan's parliament begins . debating a Saudi plea for military help in Yemen - a . request that pits Prime Minister Sharif's Saudi . allies against a war-weary Pakistani public. Since Saudi Arabia, the Gulf's main Sunni Muslim power, . asked Sunni-majority Pakistan to join a Saudi-led military . coalition that began conducting air strikes last month against . largely Shi'ite Houthi forces in Yemen, Sharif has hedged his . bets. He has said repeatedly he will defend any threat to Saudi . Arabia's 'territorial integrity' without defining what action . such a threat might provoke. 'They're looking to satisfy Saudi expectations at a minimal . level,' said Arif Rafiq, a Washington-based adjunct scholar with . the Middle East Institute. 'They're unlikely to be part of any . meaningful action inside Yemen. Maybe they will reinforce the . (Saudi) border.' Twelve days of fighting has not only killed hundreds of people, but cut off water and electricity and led UNICEF to warn Yemen is heading towards a humanitarian disaster. For the people trapped between the warring sides, the arrival of the ICRC could not come soon enough. Street fighting and heavy shelling have torn through the streets of In Aden - the last bastion of support for the Saudi-backed Hadi - for days. Sixty people were killed in heavy fighting on Sunday alone, according to reports. Residents claim a foreign warship had shelled Houthi positions on the outskirts, but a spokesman for the coalition in Riyadh said its vessels were helping civilian evacuations, not shelling the Houthis. Nevertheless, food, water and electricity shortages have mounted across the city, where combat has shut ports and cut land routes from the city. 'How are we supposed to live without water and electricity?' pleaded Fatima, a housewife walking through the city streets with her young children. She clutched a yellow plastic jerry can, like dozens of other residents on the streets and in queues seeking water from public wells or mosque faucets after supplies at home dried up. In Dahlea, just north of the city, air strikes hit a local government compound and a military base on its outskirts, which were both taken over by Houthis. Residents said buildings were on fire and reported loud explosions. But militia fighters said coalition planes also dropped supplies - the first time they had done so outside Aden - including mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, rifles, ammunition, telecommunications equipment and night goggles. Residents near al-Anad air base, once home to U.S. military personnel fighting a covert drone war with al Qaeda in Yemen, said dozens of Houthi and allied fighters were withdrawing north after the site was bombed by coalition jets. Meanwhile, at least eight people were killed in an air strike before dawn in the suburbs of the northern city of Saadah, home of the Houthi movement which spread from its mountain stronghold to take over the capital Sanaa six months ago. A Houthi spokesman said the dead included women and children. Local officials said strikes also hit air defence and coastal military units near the Red Sea port of Hodaida, and targets on the outskirts of Aden. They also hit a bridge on the road south to Aden, apparently trying to block the Houthis from sending reinforcements to their fighters in the city. Crater: Yemeni men inspect a hole allegedly made during an airstrike carried out by Saudi jets yesterday . Armed: A Yemeni gunman stands beside trucks destroyed by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike targeting Houthi rebels  in the Hais district of the western port city of Hodeidah yesterday . Destroyed: Trucks destroyed by Saudi warplanes are seen near the city of Hodeidah in Yemen yesterday . Prime Minister Sharif owes the Saudis. Endemic tax dodging means Pakistan . needs regular injections of foreign cash to avoid economic . meltdown. Last year, the Saudis gave Pakistan $1.5 billion. Saudi Arabia also sheltered Sharif after he was overthrown in a . 1999 military coup. But joining the Saudi-led coalition could inflame a . sectarian conflict at home where around a fifth of the . population is Shi'ite and attacks on Shi'ites are increasing, . further destabilising the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million . people. Pakistani intervention would probably also anger Shi'ite . power Iran, which shares a long and porous border in a region . roiling with its own separatist insurgency. Pakistan's other . main borders are with arch enemy India and Afghanistan, where . Pakistan troops are already conducting anti-Taliban operations. The Iranian foreign minister will visit Pakistan this week. A US citizen has been killed in a mortar attack in Yemen after he traveled to the country in an attempt to extricate his pregnant wife and daughter from the civil war there and fly them  to California, family say. Jamal al-Labani was an Oakland gas station owner, his cousin Mohammed Alazzani told KPIX-TV. According to Alazzani, al-Labani was in Yemen visiting his pregnant wife and the couple's two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Alazzani told KPIX al-Labani was trying to get his family out of the war-torn Middle Eastern nation and take them to Oakland - but he couldn't because the US has withdrawn its diplomatic staff and the country has shut down most airports. Family: Jamal al-Labani was in Yemen visiting his pregnant wife and the couple's 2 1/2-year-old daughter . Rebels from the Houthi Islamist group have been battling to take Aden, a last foothold of fighters loyal to Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. They have advanced to the city center despite 11 days of air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition of mainly Gulf air forces. Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia launched the air strikes on March 26 in an attempt to turn back the Iran-allied Shi'ite Houthis, who already control Yemen's capital Sanaa, and restore some of Hadi's crumbling authority. The air and sea campaign has targeted Houthi convoys, missiles and weapons stores and cut off any possible outside reinforcements - although the Houthis deny Saudi accusations that they are armed by Tehran.
Aid agency received approval from Saudi-led coalition to enter Yemen . It has been negotiating for weeks to deliver emergency food and supplies . 11 days of coalition airstrikes on Iran-backed Shi'ite Houthi rebel positions have left more than 500 people dead and many more displaced . News comes as Pakistan begins talks to join the coalition of Sunni nations .