Qatar’s foreign ministry has said the Israeli airstrike on Rafah could hinder mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire in the conflict and a hostage release deal.
Several attempts at brokering a new truce, after a week-long cessation of hostilities in November, have foundered. The last round of talks, mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar, quickly drew to a stalemate after Israel launched its attack on Rafah.
US intelligence officials met Israeli and Qatari delegations in Paris on Friday in an attempt to get negotiations back on track, but Hamas downplayed reports of tentative progress, telling a news agency on Sunday that the group had not received anything from the mediators on new dates for the resumption of talks, as Israeli media had reported.
According to Italy, Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza were no longer justifiable, making one of the strongest criticisms Rome has made so far against Israel’s war on the enclave.
“There is an increasingly difficult situation in which the Palestinian people are being squeezed without regard for the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas, and this can no longer be justified,” Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told a news agency.
“We are watching the situation with despair,” he noted.
Crosetto added that Italy agreed in principle with the Israeli response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 but added that a difference had to be made between the group and the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that his country would do “everything possible” to hold Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu to account over deadly strikes in Rafah.
“We will do everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers accountable who have nothing to do with humanity,” Erdogan said.
French President, Emmanuel Macron also said that he was “outraged by the Israeli strikes that have killed many displaced persons in Rafah.”
“These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” he posted on X.
He added, “I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.”
Rafah Attack Shows There Are No Safe Zones In Gaza
The Palestinian foreign ministry stated in a statement that the “heinous massacre” in Rafah comes amid Israel’s dismantling of Gaza’s health system and blocking of aid and medicine.
“The ministry considers this crime as new evidence proving that Israel’s declared war is against Palestinian civilians, and refutes the occupation’s claims of the existence of safe zones in the Gaza Strip,” it said.
The ministry also called on those still backing Israel’s war on Gaza to “awaken conscience, law and morals in the face of the genocidal war” and comply with international law.
Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), also said in a post on X that the Rafah camp attack is another one of the “red lines” of Israel’s allies that have been trampled.
Egeland also said that mass civilian casualties and attacks on hospitals were other red lines disregarded by the Israeli military.
He asked, “How many red lines must be crossed?”
He stated that “no more red lines” is the appeal the aid organisation is making to European leaders meeting in Brussels now.
READ ALSO: Ablakwa Notifies Police Of June 18 Demo Against SSNIT Hotel Sale
