Gaza - 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.

Seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah, in southern Gaza, while another attack left five guards dead in nearby Khan Younis, agency spokesperson Mahmud Basal said.

"The (Israeli) occupation once again targeted those securing the aid trucks," Basal told AFP, adding 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.

Labor Unions Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema hand labor board majority to Republicans with latest obstruction

As Israel's genocide rages on, the United Nations and aid agencies have repeatedly warned about the severe humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip, including the imminent risk of famine and mass starvation.

"Conditions for people across the Gaza Strip are appalling and apocalyptic," UNRWA spokesperson 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 traveling 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.

The civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes on two homes, near Nuseirat refugee camp – which was again hit later in the evening – and Gaza City killed 21 people.

Fifteen people, at least six of them children, died "as a result of an Israeli bombing" of a building sheltering displaced people near Nuseirat, Bassal said.

Bassam al-Habash, a relative of the dead in Nuseirat said: "These people are innocent, they are not wanted. They have nothing to do with the war."

Joke of the Day Joke of the Night for December 12, 2024: The best jokes to laugh the day away

"They are civilians, and this is not a war between two armies, but a war armed with weapons, planes, and Western support against a defenseless people who own nothing."

Another strike late on Thursday killed at least 25 people and wounded 50 others in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the civil defense said.

The continued violence followed the UN General Assembly's adoption of a resolution on Wednesday calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. The non-binding resolution was rejected by the US, Israel's main military backer.

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" for a ceasefire and hostage release.

Israel has killed at least 44,805 people in Gaza since October 2023, according to figures from the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true death toll to be far greater, upwards of 186,000 as of July 2024.