[Tee tiong huat]

Israel’s Gallant meets with U.S. officials; Netanyahu axes delegation to U.S. over U.N. vote.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon Tuesday. The meeting — one of a series of meetings with top U.S. officials this week — comes amid a diplomatic rift between the U.S. and Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly canceling a visit by another high-level delegation to the United States after the U.S. abstained from voting on a cease-fire resolution before the U.N. Security Council, allowing it to pass.

At the top of their meeting, Austin told Gallant that the U.S. was working to make “Israel and the region safer.” Austin called the protection of Palestinian civilians a “moral necessity and a strategic imperative,” adding that “the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/202...palestine/

No let-up in Gaza war despite UN ceasefire resolution. GAZA STRIP: Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday (Mar 26), with no sign of a let-up in the war despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an "immediate ceasefire".

The resolution was adopted Monday after Israel's closest ally the United States abstained. It demands an "immediate ceasefire" for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan, leading to a "lasting" truce.

It also demands that Hamas and other militants free hostages they took during the unprecedented Oct 7 attacks on Israel, though it does not directly link the release to a truce.

After the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres led calls for the resolution to be implemented. "Failure would be unforgivable," he wrote on social media platform X.

Israel reacted furiously to the US abstention, as it allowed the resolution to go through with all the other 14 Security Council members voting yes, resolution is the first since the Gaza war erupted to demand an immediate halt in the fighting.

Washington insisted that its abstention, which followed numerous vetoes, did not mark a shift in policy, although it has taken an increasingly tougher line with Israel in recent weeks.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/is...re-4221801