At least 33 people were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza on Thursday, local authorities reported, including 12 guards working to secure aid trucks in the Palestinian territory.
The latest bloodshed occurred just hours after the UN General Assembly called for an immediate ceasefire in the devastated territory.
Seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah, while another attack left five guards dead in Khan Younis, according to Gazan civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Basal.
He said 30 people, most of them children, were also wounded in the strikes.
"The trucks carrying flour were on their way to UNRWA warehouses," Mr Basal noted, referring to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
"The occupation aims to destroy all services for citizens across the Gaza Strip."
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to enquiries about the two strikes.
Witnesses later told news agency AFP that residents looted flour from the trucks after the strikes.
The United Nations and other aid organisations have repeatedly warned about the acute humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, exacerbated by the war that has persisted for over 14 months.
Further Israeli air strikes on two homes near the Nuseirat refugee camp and Gaza City killed 21 people, including children, the civil defence agency said.
Fifteen people, at least six of them children, died "as a result of an Israeli bombing" of a building sheltering displaced people near Nuseirat, Mr Basal said.
The bodies of six others killed in a strike on an apartment in Gaza City were taken to a hospital morgue, he added.
Hamas welcomes UN vote
Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Thursday it welcomed a UN General Assembly vote calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, a symbolic gesture rejected by the United States and Israel.
Australia voted in favour of the motion.
Hamas said in a statement it "welcomes the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolution, supported by 158 countries, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, enabling civilians in the [Gaza] Strip to have immediate access to essential services and humanitarian aid."
The General Assembly adopted the resolution on Wednesday by 158 votes to nine, with 13 abstentions.
The resolution called for "an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire", and "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages" — wording similar to that in a motion vetoed by the US in the UN Security Council last month.
Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 terrorist attack sparked the war in Gaza, said: "Throughout this aggression, we have consistently expressed our willingness to respond to any decisions or initiatives leading to a ceasefire."
The militant group blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the United States for the persistent fighting.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, however, criticised the UN resolution as "immoral", arguing it effectively demanded that Israel abandon hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack last year.
Hamas militants abducted 251 hostages during the attack, which killed 1,208 people — mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel's offensive in Gaza has since killed tens of thousands of people and devastated the coastal territory, forcing almost all of its residents into poverty.
About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, although up to a third of those people are likely already dead, according to most estimates.
Two Palestinians killed in West Bank raids
In the West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory not under the control of Hamas, officials said Israeli military raids killed two Palestinians.
The Israeli army said its forces had killed two terrorists in a counterterrorism operation.
Israeli forces shot one man dead after they entered the Balata refugee camp near the northern city of Nablus in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to Imad Tarawi, the head of the camp's popular committee.
The Palestinian Red Crescent in Nablus said in a statement that a 65-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman were also injured after being beaten by Israeli forces during the operation.
In a separate statement, the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said Israeli forces shot dead 25-year-old Muhammad Barahmeh in the northern city of Qalqilya early on Thursday.
The ministry said Barahmeh's body was taken by Israeli forces.
The Israeli army said a "terrorist was eliminated" by the army and Israel border police in Qalqilya.
ABC/AFP/Reuters
