Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Tuesday accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza and called on the Islamic world to arm Palestinians fighting "the Zionist regime".

In a speech marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, Khamenei said Israel was acting like a "rabid dog" and "a wild wolf" in acts that are causing a human catastrophe and which must be resisted.

The deputy head of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council, Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, called on Tuesday for the support of the Palestinian people and for limiting Lebanon's woes.

In his Eid al-Fitr sermon, Qabalan said: “We should steer clear of strife.”

Egypt on Monday condemned Israel for using what it said was "excessive force" against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

It also urged Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian movement that dominates the Gaza Strip, to abide by the "humanitarian truce" proposed by Cairo and backed by the United Nations to end the 21-day conflict.

After Lebanese networks last week aired a unified newscast in solidarity with Palestinians suffering a bloody war in the Gaza Strip, LBCI television launched on Monday a new campaign to condemn the Islamic State's attacks on Christians in Iraq.

LBCI changed its logo to “Lbن,” and took the initiative after Muslim Iraqi journalist Dalia al-Aqidi wore a cross around her neck in solidarity with her country's Christian minority.

The end of a month of fasting was supposed to be a time to celebrate for Abeer Shamali. But instead, she spent the Muslim Eid feast at the grave of her teenage son.

Fellow mourners looked on glumly Monday as Abeer caressed the earth under which her dead son lay, and placed pink and white hydrangeas upon the mound of sandy soil where Thaer, 16, was buried just four days ago.

Bloodshed in and around Gaza surged Monday as several children were killed in Israeli strikes on the Strip, hiking the Palestinian death toll from Israel's 21-day operation to 1,060.

It was a bloody start to the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr which began on Monday, with international demands for an end to the fighting falling on increasingly deaf ears.

When the doctors gently pulled the tiny newborn from her mother's womb in an emergency Caesarian section, the woman had already been dead for an hour.

Twenty-three-year-old Shayma al-Sheikh Qanan was eight months pregnant when an Israeli tank shell hit her home in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah, reducing it to rubble.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon warned on Monday of the “very critical and delicate” situation in the South, but said concerned parties assured that the region would remain “calm.”

The situation in Lebanon, just like in the region, is “very delicate and critical,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti expressed on Monday, adding that he was concerned about the firing of rockets towards Israel.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in support of war-torn Gaza on Monday as they gathered to pray at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque at the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. 

Police put the number of worshipers at 45,000 people, with an Agence France Presse correspondent saying many were dressed in black t-shirts emblazoned with slogans reading "Gaza, supporting you is our Eid" and "We are all Gaza."

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani called on Monday for the election of a president and for holding parliamentary polls after agreeing on an electoral law that represents all sides.

“Lebanon's politicians have been seduced by arrogance and unilateralism in everything,” Qabbani said in his Eid al-Fitr sermon at Mohammed al-Amin mosque in downtown Beirut.