Italy on Monday praised the UN Security Council's backing of a resolution calling for an "immediate ceasefire" in Israel's war in Gaza and the release of all hostages calling it "a first positive step forward".
"It gives us hope and it is a first positive step forward," said Tajani in a comment on the vote in which the United States abstained and the remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution, which was proposed by its 10 elected members.
"I hope that the negotiations for the release of the hostages move ahead quickly," Tajani continued.
The UN Security Council vote makes for "a less complicated situation that will eventually lead to the birth of a Palestinian state coexisting with Israel," Tajani claimed.
Gaza's ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution's adoption, saying in a statement that it "affirms readiness to engage in immediate prisoner swaps on both sides".
But Israel's premier Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a high-level delegation's visit to Washington that was set to discuss a planned Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah at the border with Egypt, where some 1.5 million people are sheltering from the conflict.
Now in its sixth month, Israel's war against Hamas has devastated the blockaded and bombarded Palestinian enclave, killed over 32,000 people there and raised the spectre of imminent famine. The UN has reported that children are already dying of hunger.
The US has vetoed three draft Security resolutions on the war in Gaza and Russia and China have also vetoed two US drafted resolutions on the conflict - in October and on Friday.
