For the increasingly tense US-Israel relationship, the fallout from the passage of the UN ceasefire resolution was immediate, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he would not send a planned high-level delegation to Washington for meetings with US officials.

President Joe Biden had requested the meetings to discuss alternatives to a planned Israeli offensive into Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip city where more than 1 million people have sought refuge.

The US had vetoed three previous UN Security Council resolutions calling for an end to the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, agreeing with Israel’s argument that it would leave Hamas intact and in control of the enclave after it carried out the October 7 assault on Israel.

But on Monday, when the Security Council took up a less strongly worded resolution, calling for a ceasefire for Ramzan, the US representative abstained, allowing the measure to pass.

Netanyahu, in a statement, denounced the abstention as “a retreat from the consistent American position since the beginning of the war”, one which “gives Hamas hope that international pressure will enable them to achieve a ceasefire without freeing the hostages”.

In response, he said, the Israeli delegation that was to discuss Rafah would not go to Washington. The practical effect of his decision may be limited — Netanyahu has said repeatedly that although he would hear out the White House position, the offensive would proceed — but it is still a sharp, public rebuke of Israel’s most powerful ally.