Morning Chronicle - Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 33, hit flour trucks

The latest bloodshed came after the UN General Assembly called for an immediate ceasefire in the devastated territory, where war has raged since October 2023.

Seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah, in southern Gaza, while another attack left five guards dead in nearby Khan Yunis, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

"The (Israeli) occupation once again targeted those securing the aid trucks," Bassal told AFP, though the military said it "does not strike humanitarian aid trucks".

Bassal added that around 30 people, most of them children, were wounded in the two strikes.

"The trucks carrying flour were on their way to UNRWA warehouses," Bassal noted, referring to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

"The occupation aims to destroy all services for citizens across the Gaza Strip," the spokesman said.

Witnesses later told AFP that residents looted flour from the trucks after the strikes.

The military said its forces "conducted precise strikes" overnight on armed Hamas militants present in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.

"All of the terrorists that were eliminated were members of Hamas and planned to violently hijack humanitarian aid trucks and transfer them to Hamas in support of continuing terrorist activity, preventing them from reaching Gazan civilians, as was done in previous cases," a military statement said.

- 'Apocalyptic' -

The United Nations and other aid agencies have repeatedly warned about the acute humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip, exacerbated by the war that has persisted for more than 14 months.

"Conditions for people across the Gaza Strip are appalling and apocalyptic," UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge told journalists during a visit to Nuseirat in central Gaza.

She added that life-saving aid to "besieged areas in north Gaza governorate has been largely blocked" since the Israeli military launched a sweeping assault there in early October.

In southern Gaza, UNRWA said earlier this week it had successfully delivered enough food aid for 200,000 people.

But on Thursday it said "a serious incident" meant that only one truck out of a convoy of 70 travelling along Gaza's southern border reached its destination.

The agency did not provide any details on the incident, but called on "all parties to ensure safe, unimpeded and uninterrupted" aid deliveries.

As diplomacy aimed at ending the war appeared to be gaining pace again, the violence continued.

The civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on two homes near Nuseirat refugee camp and Gaza City killed 21 people including children.

The bodies of six others killed in a strike on an apartment in Gaza City were taken to a hospital morgue, he added.

In Khan Yunis, relatives gathered at the Nasser Hospital to mourn the dead and perform funeral rites.

- Diplomatic push -

In the latest diplomatic effort to secure an end the violence, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

The non-binding resolution was rejected by the United States, Israel's main military backer.

However, in recent days, there have been indications that previously stalled ceasefire negotiations could be revived.

Families of the 96 hostages still in Gaza since the Hamas attack that triggered the war, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead, are pressing for their release.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who visited Israel on Thursday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he "got the sense" that the Israeli leader was "ready to do a deal".

Militants abducted 251 hostages during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

This count includes hostages who died or were killed while held in Gaza.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,805 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

C.Griffiths--MC-UK