US rearranging cancelled Washington talks after Netanyahu climbdown

The White House says it is working to rearrange a visit by an Israeli delegation to Washington that was abruptly cancelled by Benjamin Netanyahu after the US decision not to veto a UN security council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, confirmed reports that the Israeli prime minister had climbed down over the visit and agreed to reschedule it. “We’re now working with them to find a convenient date that’s obviously going to work for both sides,” she said.

Netanyahu has come in for withering criticism domestically over his handling of relations with Israel’s most important military and diplomatic ally, which came to a head after the security council vote on Monday.

Following the vote, Netanyahu’s office cancelled a visit to Washington by a delegation led by the Israeli strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, and national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, to discuss Israel’s planned military operation against the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which the US opposes.

The latest diplomatic moves came as the UN reported that famine was “ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza” and that the territory’s health system was collapsing owing to the continuing hostilities and “access constraints”.

Bombardment and fighting continued in Gaza on Thursday despite the passage of the binding security council resolution, which demanded an “immediate ceasefire” and the release of hostages held by militants.

Fighting around three of the strip’s hospitals raised fears for the patients, medical staff and displaced people inside. Israel’s military again accused Hamas fighters of hiding in medical facilities and using civilians as shields.

The al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, near Rafah, has ceased to function, the Palestine Red Crescent said earlier this week, following the evacuation of civilians.

Early on Thursday, the Israeli army said militants had been firing on troops from within and outside the emergency ward at al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza City.

Troops began raiding al-Shifa early last week, and on Wednesday night carried out an airstrike on the emergency ward “while avoiding harm to civilians, patients, and medical teams”, the army said. The claim could not be independently verified.

The UN has reported intensive exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and armed Palestinians. It cited the health ministry in Gaza as saying that the Israeli army had confined medical staff and patients to one building, not allowing them to leave.

Israel’s army said troops had evacuated civilians, patients and staff “to alternative medical facilities” it had set up.

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have also massed around the Nasser hospital, the Gaza health ministry said, adding that shots were fired but no raid had yet been launched. The Red Crescent said thousands of people were trapped inside.

Reports of the continued fighting came as an international team of doctors who visited the al-Aqsa hospital, in the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, told Associated Press of harrowing scenes. According to the doctors one toddler died from a brain injury caused by an Israeli strike that fractured his skull, while his infant cousin is fighting for her life with part of her face blown off by the same strike.

The team said a 10-year-old boy, who was not related, screamed out in pain for his parents, not knowing that they had been killed in the strike; he did not recognise his sister beside him, because burns covered almost her entire body, they said.

“I spend most of my time here resuscitating children,” said Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive-care doctor from Jordan who has extensive experience in Gaza and often speaks out about the war’s devastating effects. “What does that tell you about every other hospital in the Gaza Strip?”

Agencies contributed to this report