The Qatari foreign minister condemned the deaths of dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as a "massacre" and called for a ceasefire that would ensure the lifting of a blockade on the coastal region.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Ban, in Doha on the first leg of a Middle East tour to try to end the bloodshed, met Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiya before heading for Egypt.
"While I was on route to Doha, dozens more civilians have been killed in the Israeli military strikes in Gaza, I condemn the atrocious action," Ban said in a statement after talks with Attiya. "Israel must exercise maximum restraint. I repeat my demands to all sides that they must respect international humanitarian law. The violence must stop now," he added.
More than 60 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were killed as Israel shelled Gaza's Shejaia neighbourhood and battled militants in the bloodiest fighting in the 13-day offensive.
Attiyah called the killings a massacre and said Israel must not be allowed to chose when to wage a war and when to stop. "We condemn all the atrocities perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people, the last of which was al-Shejaia massacre today," Attiya said. "The majority of the victims were women and children."
Qatar has emerged as a possible peacemaker in the Gaza Strip after the Islamist Hamas group, which controls Gaza, rejected an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire. Hamas demanded instead that any accord must include lifting a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt on the Gaza Stip and a return to an understanding that ended a previous round of fighting in 2012.
US officials say Washington has asked Qatar to try to influence Hamas, whose leader lives in Doha, but they said that those links mean Israel is unlikely to accept it as a mediator.
Attiyah said Qatar was only conveying the Palestinian demands, which he said must include the opening of border crossing points between Gaza and Egypt and Gaza and Israel.
"Consultations, discussions are still underway to have a ceasefire in place, simply for the reason that the Palestinian people can no long accept the long siege," Attiya said.
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