Qatar has renewed its condemnation of Israel’s ongoing attacks in Rafah, slamming it as “a blatant challenge to international laws” and undermining truce talks.

Qatar and Egypt are seeking to jumpstart the indirect Israel-Hamas negotiations in the hopes of securing a truce deal in the Gaza Strip, according to a report by Egypt’s state-media affiliated Al-Qahera News.

The report highlighted “intensified efforts to relaunch” negotiations for a captives-prisoner exchange and a truce deal following a notable stalemate. This renewed push comes after Israel’s occupation of the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border crossing and its subsequent ground invasion of the southern city earlier this month.

“We have informed all concerned parties that Israel’s insistence on committing massacres and escalating in the Palestinian city of Rafah weakens negotiation tracks and will lead to dire consequences,” Al-Qahera said, citing an anonymous high-ranking official source.

The Israeli invasion of the vital Rafah crossing on May 6 came hours after Hamas approved a Qatari-Egyptian proposal.

Intensified attacks on Rafah, where 1.7 million internally displaced Palestinians were living, has resulted in further displacements.

On Sunday, the Israeli army carried out a massacre in northwest Rafah, where it burned alive dozens of internally displaced Palestinians that were sheltering inside tents. 

At least 45 people have been killed and dozens of others injured, mostly women and children. The area was previously declared as a safe zone by Israel, according to Palestine news agency Wafa. 

A second attack on displaced Palestinians took place on Tuesday, where Israeli air strikes killed 21 people in the same area.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt condemned the attacks, with the former warning that it would only “complicate the ongoing mediation efforts” in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, Qatar renewed its condemnation of Israel’s ongoing attacks in Rafah, slamming it as “a blatant challenge to international laws and norms and an undermining of the negotiations’ process”.

In a statement, the Qatari foreign ministry called on the international community to adhere to “its legal and moral responsibilities by obligating Israel to implement international legitimacy resolutions”.

Israel presents new proposal

Reports over a possible new round of negotiations first surfaced over the weekend following a meeting in Paris last Friday. 

The talks saw the attendance of a number of officials, including Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, and CIA Director Bill Burns.

However, Hamas later stated that there is “no need” for another round of negotiations as it had previously approved a proposal put forth by the regional mediators.

“We do not need new negotiations and the Hamas movement responded to the document presented by the mediators,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera Arabic in a phone interview on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Israel reportedly handed Qatar, Egypt and the United States a new proposal for a possible deal, two sources privy to the matter told Axios. 

The updated proposal included “a willingness to be flexible” regarding the number of captives to be released in the first phase of the truce.

The proposal also entailed further “willingness” from the Israeli side to discuss Hamas’s demand for “sustainable calm” in Gaza – without any mention of a complete ceasefire, the main demand by Hamas and the international community.

“There is a new initiative and it is serious,” the source told Axios.

Separately, sources told Al-Qahera News that officials from Qatar and Hamas were scheduled to meet on the same day to discuss the latest proposal, though both sides have yet to publicly comment on the matter. 

Hamas’s main demands throughout the negotiations has been a complete and permanent end of Israel’s war on the coastal enclave; the unconditional return of internally displaced Palestinians from the south to the north; and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Israel has rejected Hamas’s demands as “unreasonable” and vowed to continue its brutal war until it “eliminates” the Palestinian group – an objective that many analysts say is not realistic.

Field hospitals targeted in Rafah

According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israel has killed at least 36,171 Palestinians in Gaza since the beginning of the war on October 7, widely described as a genocide.

Israeli tanks reached the Zoroub roundabout in Rafah on Tuesday, where it attacked the Indonesian Field Hospital with an artillery shell.

Medical sources told Wafa on the same day that all hospitals in Rafah have gone out of service except for the Tal Al-Sultan Maternity Hospital. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) also said that it was forced to evacuated its Al-Quds Field Hospital from the Mawasi Rafah area to the Mawasi Khan Younis area due to the intensified Israeli attacks.

“This action was taken due to the increased threat level from the Israeli occupation, continued artillery and air bombardments in its vicinity, and the complete evacuation of residents from the surrounding area,” PRCS said in a statement.