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

Bassal said the 14 included nine children under the age of 16.

AFP photographs showed relatives at the European hospital in Khan Yunis mourning the deaths of children, the bodies of several of them wrapped in white shrouds.

The military, in a statement giving an operational update, said that "a number of terrorists were eliminated from the air and ground" in southern Gaza.

While Israeli forces continue to operate across Gaza, recent weeks have seen an intensified air and ground assault in the territory's north, where the military reports Hamas militants are regrouping.