US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a press conference. File photo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a high-level delegation's planned visit to Washington after the US decided not to use its veto power on Monday’s UN Security Council resolution for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

After vetoing three previous resolutions calling for a cease-fire, the US decision to abstain Monday comes at a time of growing tensions between President Joe Biden’s administration and Netanyahu over Israel’s prosecution of the war, the high number of civilian casualties and the limited amount of humanitarian assistance reaching Gaza.

There are "reasonable grounds” to believe Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza, an independent expert working with the UN’s top human rights body said Monday.

International aid officials say the entire population of the Gaza Strip — 2.3 million people — is suffering from food insecurity and that famine is imminent in the hard-hit north.

More than 32,000 people have been killed in the besieged territory and more than 74,000 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally. It says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Some 1,200 people were killed on Oct. 7 when Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise attack out of Gaza, triggering the war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 Israelis hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.

Associated Press