AIR strikes by Israeli forces on the Gaza Strip killed at least 29 people today, including one that hit a home where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north, killing 19, according to Palestinian medical officials.

The United Nations issued a warning about the worsening humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza as the Israelis continue to block access to aid for the Palestinians.

The 19 people killed in the strike on the northern town of Beit Lahiya were taken to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital. Hospital records show that a family of eight was among those killed, including four children, their parents and two grandparents.

The hospital said that another strike near its entrance on Wednesday killed a woman and her two children.

Another strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to the Awda Hospital. The dead reportedly included two children, their parents and three relatives.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military which claims it avoids targeting civilians and accuses resistance fighters of hiding among them.

The Israeli assault on the Palestinians in Gaza rages on with no ceasefire in sight and as the humanitarian crisis worsens.

The UN said on Tuesday that humanitarian aid to northern Gaza has largely been blocked for the past 66 days, leaving between 65,000 and 75,000 Palestinians without access to food, water, electricity or healthcare.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said Israel’s continued siege of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya has largely denied Palestinians living there any access to aid.

Recently, it said, about 5,500 people were forcibly displaced from three schools in Beit Lahiya to Gaza City.

Only four UN-supported bakeries are operating throughout the Gaza Strip, all of them in Gaza City, Ocha said.

Sigrid Kaag, the senior UN humanitarian and reconstruction co-ordinator for Gaza, told reporters after briefing the UN security council behind closed doors on Tuesday afternoon that civilians trying to survive in Gaza face an “utterly devastating situation.”

Ms Kaag said that the UN has repeatedly asked Israel for access for convoys to north Gaza and elsewhere, to allow in commercial goods, to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt in the south, and to approve dual-use items.

Ms Kaag said that more than $4 billion (£3bn) was needed to fund humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, most of it earmarked for war-ravaged Gaza.

She also call for “all impediments to the entry of aid” to be lifted.

Israel’s UN Mission said it had no comment on Ms Kaag’s remarks.