Khan Younis, Gaza - Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes hit two homes at dawn on Friday in Khan Younis, the territory's main southern city, killing at least 20 people.

Fourteen people were killed in a strike that hit the home of the Al-Fara family, and another six were killed in a separate air raid, according to agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal.

Medics at the Nasser Medical complex confirmed the casualties at the Al-Fara home and released the names of the dead. At least 10 children were included among those killed.

Israeli forces have in recent weeks intensified their air and ground assault in the territory's north, where hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in increasingly desperate conditions.

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Humanitarian aid agencies have reported that no food has entered in weeks due to the brutal Israeli blockade and warned that the entire area is "being erased."

Rescue workers were forced to halt life-saving operations in northern Gaza due to Israeli threats to "bomb and kill" crews, Bassal said.

Israel has slaughtered at least 43,552 Palestinians in the last year, according to the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, potentially upwards of 186,000 as of July.

The US government has continued to back Israel's genocidal assault by supplying deadly weapons and diplomatic cover to the apartheid regime.