As NATO and European Union member and ally of the United States, Italy is "striving" to kick-start stalled peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, according to Italy's foreign secretary Luigi Di Maio.
"During the worst days of the escalating violence between Hamas and Israel, Italy urged the EU and our allies to roll out an initiative by the Quartet," Di Maio told geopolitics event centred on the Middle East conflict.
The "dramatic situation" in the Middle East region should be seized as an opportunity for progress in the region, Di Maio argued.
The shaky truce agreed last month between Hamas and Israel which ended a devastating 11-day escalation, is in danger of unravelling, top UN envoy for the Middle East Tor Wennesland told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
Wennesland urged "all sides to refrain from unilateral steps and provocations" and "facilitate ongoing discussions to stabilize the situation on the ground".
Israel and Palestinian factions are at loggerheads over Israel's demand that the re-building of airstrike-devastated Gaza should be conditional on a prisoner exchange agreement.
In the first attacks since the Egypt-mediated truce in May, Israeli aircraft struck Hamas sites in Gaza last week after incendiary balloons were launched from the Palestinian enclave.
