Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 33, hit flour trucks

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed at least 33 people, including 12 guards securing aid trucks, while the military said it targeted militants planning to hijack the vehicles.

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.