Israeli forces continued with their brutality and did not spare Palestinians on the first day of Eid al-Adha, by carrying out a series of airstrikes and artillery attacks across the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, killing two people, reported Anadolu Agency.

Despite the festive occasion, many Palestinians performed Eid prayers amid the rubble of their destroyed homes, as Israel’s genocidal war continues to devastate the besieged enclave.

In southern Gaza, Israeli warplanes carried out multiple raids in Khan Younis, while heavy artillery targeted residential neighborhoods in the central, northern, and eastern parts of the city, witnesses said.

Plumes of smoke rose across southern Khan Younis as shelling and air raids intensified.

According to medical sources, a child was shot dead by Israeli forces near the Al-Saraya detention area in Khan Younis. Another civilian succumbed to injuries sustained in a previous Israeli strike on the city.

Eyewitnesses also reported that Israeli troops carried out demolitions of buildings in northern Khan Younis.

In the north of Gaza, heavy shelling hit the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, while air raids struck Jabalia town, residents said.

On the eve of Eid, at least 41 Palestinians, including children, women, and journalists, were killed in Israeli attacks across various areas, according to local reports.

This marks the fourth Eid al-Adha observed under the shadow of war in Gaza, which has been reeling from a deliberate and systematic campaign of extermination since Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a genocidal offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 54,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million inhabitants.