Gaza mediators are engaging with Israel and Hamas to build on momentum from this week’s ceasefire with Iran and work towards a truce in the Palestinian territory, Qatar foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari tells AFP.

Ansari said Doha — with fellow Gaza mediators in Washington and Cairo — was now “trying to use the momentum that was created by the ceasefire between Iran and Israel to restart the talks over Gaza”.

“If we don’t utilise this window of opportunity and this momentum, it’s an opportunity lost amongst many in the near past. We don’t want to see that again,” the spokesman, who is also an adviser to Qatar’s prime minister, said.

“We have seen US pressure and what it can accomplish,” Ansari said, referring to the January truce.

The Qatari official said, particularly in the context of US enforcement of the Israel-Iran truce, it was “not a far-fetched idea” that pressure from Washington would achieve a fresh truce in Gaza.

“We are working with them very, very closely to make sure that the right pressure is applied from the international community as a whole, especially from the US, to see both parties at the negotiating table,” Ansari said.