Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 58, hit flour trucks

Gaza's civil defense agency said a series of Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed at least 58 people, including 12 guards securing aid trucks, while the military said it targeted militants planning to hijack the vehicles.

The latest bloodshed came despite growing optimism that negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal might finally succeed, with U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan saying on Thursday that the regional "context" had changed in favour of an agreement.

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 Basal said.

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

Basal 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," Basal noted, referring to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

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.

  'Apocalyptic' 

The United Nations and 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.<...