Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
The White House on Monday said it was “very disappointed” by Israel's decision to cancel a delegation’s visit to Washington over the US abstention on a UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had called off meetings aimed at discussing US concerns over a possible offensive in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
“We're very disappointed that they will not be coming to Washington DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to going in on the ground in Rafah,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Later at the White House, Mr Kirby said: “We're perplexed by this. This is a non-binding resolution, so there's no impact at all on Israel and Israel's ability to continue to go after Hamas."
According to the UN Charter, all Security Council resolutions are binding under international law.
Tension is growing between the US and Israel over the planned invasion of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, which is hosting about 1.4 million people displaced by Israeli military operations against Hamas.
The 15-member Security Council adopted a resolution that demands a “lasting, sustainable ceasefire” in Gaza. It is the first time the council has passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire in the conflict.
“The United States has abandoned its policy in the UN today,” Mr Netanyahu's office said in a statement after the vote.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear last night that should the US depart from its principled policy and not veto this harmful resolution, he will cancel the Israeli delegation's visit to the United States.
“In light of the change in the US position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that the delegation will remain in Israel.”
But Mr Kirby said the abstention was not a change in the US position on the Israel-Gaza war.
In a phone call, US President Joe Biden asked Mr Netanyahu to send a high-level delegation to Washington to hear alternatives that would allow Israel to continue its fight against Hamas in Rafah without high levels of civilian casualties.
The Israeli Prime Minister at the time agreed to send a team, while publicly saying Israel needs to “finish the job” against the militants believed to be holding positions in the city.
The White House said it has not yet received detailed plans from Israel about the invasion.
“I think we'll have an opportunity to talk about Rafah but it probably won't be a full replacement for what we're hoping to do with a broader, larger delegation of Israeli counterparts,” Mr Kirby said.
“Just because this meeting is now not going to happen doesn't mean that we're are still not going to look for avenues and approach to be able to share those alternatives.”
But US officials held talks on Monday in Washington with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Mr Kirby said Rafah will be mentioned in meetings with Mr Gallant.
“We'll have ample opportunities to talk with him about what's going on with their planning for Rafah as well as what's going on inside negotiations to get all the hostages out," he said.
"So we're focused on moving things forward."
Mr Blinken "reiterated that there are alternatives to a major ground invasion of Rafah that would better ensure Israel's security and protect Palestinian civilians", State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement posted on X.
Mr Sullivan said in social media posts that he and Mr Gallant had "a constructive discussion" about the fight against Hamas, addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and approaching the threat from Iran.
Mr Gallant is expected to meet Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday.
Mr Miller called Mr Netanyahu's move “a bit surprising and unfortunate” but said Israel has “made clear that they did want to see the options, the alternatives, that the United States was going to present” on Rafah.
THE BIO
Age: 33
Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill
Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.
Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?
Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
