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Israel’s foreign minister has accused the US of undermining hostage negotiations in Gaza, claiming that Washington had made an “ethical mistake” by failing to veto a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the enclave.

In the latest sign of deteriorating relations between Israel and its most important ally, Israel Katz said the resolution had encouraged Hamas to reject a separate deal to free Israeli hostages it is holding in Gaza.

“Hamas is building on the fact that . . . there will be a ceasefire without it needing to pay a thing,” Katz said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio. “There was a message . . . to anyone on Hamas’s side that the US does not support Israel as much.”

State department spokesman Matthew Miller said Katz’s claim was “inaccurate in every respect”. He added that Hamas had prepared its response before the UN vote, not after it.

The UN resolution — which called for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate release of the hostages Hamas seized during its October 7 attack on Israel — passed after the US abstained from a UN vote on Monday.

The US decision came amid mounting frustration in US President Joe Biden’s administration at the way Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing government has been conducting the war, which has taken a devastating toll on Gaza’s civilian population. Washington’s choice not to veto the resolution prompted Israel to cancel a visit by senior officials.

Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz
Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz says the US made a ‘moral and ethical mistake’ by allowing the resolution to pass © Michael Kappeler/dpa

Israeli media reported on Tuesday morning that, following Hamas’s rejection of the US hostage deal proposal, Israel had recalled its negotiators from Doha, where talks have been taking place — mediated by Qatar and Egypt — on a truce and on hostage releases.

However, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said the talks were “ongoing” and the UN resolution had not immediately affected them.

A person briefed on the talks said officials from Israel’s Mossad spy agency remained in Doha and only a small Mossad team was returning to Israel for consultations on developments in the talks.

The US, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to mediate a deal between Israel and Hamas that would halt the war and secure the release of the more than 100 Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

But the mediators have struggled to make progress because wide gaps remain between the parties, including Hamas’s demand that any deal ends with a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel has repeatedly rejected the demand.

Monday’s decision by the US to abstain from the resolution vote was the most high-profile breach between the US and Israel at the UN since 2016, and contrasted with the US’s repeated vetoing earlier in the war of resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

The US’s change in tack followed weeks of mounting tensions between Washington and Israel. The US has publicly opposed Israeli plans for a military operation in Rafah, the southern Gazan town sheltering hundreds of thousands of people who have fled from fighting elsewhere in the enclave.

In a meeting between US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, the US shared its ideas for an alternative approach, a senior US defence official said. These included a phased approach that would prioritise the evacuation of more than 1mn civilians and the arrival of humanitarian assistance.

“The military aspect of the operation should not proceed until the humanitarian aspects have been fulsomely addressed,” the US official said.

Austin and Gallant also discussed “precision targeting” of Hamas leaders. It came as the Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Tuesday the earlier killing of Marwan Issa, the third most senior Hamas figure in Gaza.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas militants stormed into the country on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking a further 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has so far killed about 32,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials. It has also displaced more than 1.7mn of its 2.3mn inhabitants and fuelled a humanitarian catastrophe.

The UN has warned that northern Gaza risks “imminent famine”, adding to international pressure for Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not stop its offensive until it has destroyed Hamas.

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