Qatar 'strongly condemns' Israeli attacks on Gaza

Qatar on Tuesday strongly denounced Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip as renewed violence threatened to thwart efforts to end months of killings.

Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip killed two Palestinians on Tuesday, the besieged Palestinian enclave's health ministry has said, raising the death toll from bombing in the last 24 hours to six.

Qatar expressed its "strong condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli shelling of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip that left a number of martyrs and injuries", the foreign ministry said.

Israeli actions are a "serious military escalation" that would "complicate the already difficult situation in the Gaza Strip as a result of the suffocating siege imposed on it for years", it added.

The Israeli military says it has hit around 150 targets in the Gaza Strip since Monday afternoon, while nearly 400 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired from Gaza at Israel.

The outbreak of violence came after months of deadly unrest along the Gaza-Israel border had appeared to be calming.

Recent weeks have seen Israel allow Qatar to provide the Gaza Strip with millions of dollars in aid for salaries as well as fuel to help ease an electricity crisis.