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China's state-owned COFCO bought three U.S. soybean cargoes, two trade sources said, the country's first purchases from this year's U.S. harvest, shortly before a summit of leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, Reuters reported.

As the two nations battle over trade tariffs, the lack of Chinese buying has cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars in lost sales, after they largely supported Trump in his campaigns for president.

Although COFCO's deal for December-January shipment of about 180,000 metric tons of soybeans was China's first such buy in months, traders do not expect a significant resumption in demand for U.S. cargoes after recent large South American purchases, according to Reuters .

COFCO did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump began the final leg of his Asia trip in South Korea on Wednesday, optimistic about advancing an unresolved tariff deal with the country's President Lee Jae Myung and striking a trade war truce with China's Xi Jinping, Reuters reported.

Arriving from Tokyo hours after North Korea test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile, Trump was treated to a lavish reception by Lee in Gyeongju, a sleepy town hosting this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, before Thursday's talks with Xi.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to South Korea earlier, Trump dismissed the North Korea missile test and said he was squarely focused on his meeting with the leader of the world's second-largest economy, according to Reuters.

At least 33 Palestinians were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes in Gaza on Tuesday night, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency and hospitals say, BBC reported.

Israel carried out the strikes in response to what it said were violations by Hamas of the US-brokered ceasefire deal.

Israel's defence minister accused Hamas of an attack in southern Gaza that killed an Israeli soldier on Tuesday, and of breaching the terms on returning deceased hostages' bodies. Hamas claimed it had "no connection" to the attack and insisted it was committed to the ceasefire deal.

US President Donald Trump maintained "nothing" would jeopardise the ceasefire, but added that Israel should "hit back" when its soldiers were targeted, according to BBC.

Fears are mounting of mass killings in the key Sudanese city of el-Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured it from government forces, BBC reported.

In a address on Monday evening, Sudan's military chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he had approved the withdrawal of troops in response to the "systematic destruction and killing of civilians".

The UN said there were credible reports of "summary executions", while Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab referred to satellite imagery of "piles of bodies executed en masse".

The RSF has denied accusations of killing civilians and targeting non-Arab ethnic groups, despite evidence presented by the UN and human rights organisations, according to BBC.