Still in defiance of the UN resolutions, Israel has ruled out ending its eight-month-long war in Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that its military campaign would continue even if a proposed cease-fire deal is agreed upon with Palestine’s Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).  

Since the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2735 (2024) on June 10, Hamas has notified related parties to welcome the adoption and said in a statement that it is ready to cooperate with mediators over implementing the principles of the resolution. Israel, however, has so far failed to officially notify the negotiating parties or the UN of theirs, even though the United States talked of Israeli acceptance already.

“Netanyahu’s positions are a clear confirmation of his rejection of the recent Security Council resolution, and the proposals of US President Joe Biden,” Hamas issued a statement describing remarks from Netanyahu, according to the official website of The Palestinian Information Centre on Sunday.

Not only does Israel have no intention of ending the war but critics have pointed out it has also disregarded international norms by attacking humanitarian aid sites, preventing humanitarian assistance from reaching Gaza

According to Al Jazeera, the US position on the Gaza cease-fire is that Hamas is responsible for the delay and that Israel has not just accepted the deal but helped produce it, which analysts doubt if the US administration is again misleading the public.

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Unlike the White House statements, while Israel’s stance on Biden’s proposal remains vague, Netanyahu has made clear that any pause in fighting does not mean an end to the war.

“The goal is to return the kidnapped and uproot the Hamas regime in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 network on June 23.

"The intense phase of the fighting against Hamas is about to end. It doesn't mean that the war is about to end, but the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah," Netanyahu told the channel, indicating that Israel’s campaign is far from over.

The UNSC cease-fire resolution 2735 (2024) specifies three phases, the first of which would include an immediate, full and complete cease-fire with the release of hostages and the return of the remains of some hostages who have been killed, and withdrawal of Israeli forces from the populated areas in Gaza.

Ayman Yousef, a professor of international relations at the Arab American University in Jenin in the West Bank, told China Daily there are questions over the US and Israel’s different views of the cease-fire proposal.

“I think the US position is weak. The US failed to impose this cease-fire deal on Israel itself. This administration is weak in terms of putting this proposal more clearly. I blame directly the weak Biden administration,” Yousef said of Biden’s leadership.

“The US knows that Israel is the main hindrance or the main obstacle in the way of achieving a cease-fire,” he added.

Yousef also noted that when the US was mediating it left the details to the Israeli negotiators and failed to put enough pressure on Israel.

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Furthermore, Yousef said that the US has failed to differentiate between a temporary or permanent cease-fire, with the latter effectively meaning an end to the war.

This confusion has been passed to both Hamas and Israel, Yousef said and Netanyahu is exploiting the gap between the different definitions of cease-fire.

 “I think Netanyahu is still resisting. Netanyahu is not listening to Biden. That is very much clear,” Yousef added.    

Israeli tanks advanced to the edge of the tent camp in al-Mawasi “safe zone” near the southern city of Rafah on June 24, Gaza residents told Al Jazeera. Not only does Israel have no intention of ending the war but critics have pointed out it has also disregarded international norms by attacking humanitarian aid sites, preventing humanitarian assistance from reaching Gaza.

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On June 23, Israel launched an air strike near an aid center that was the main headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), leaving eight killed and many injured, according to The New Arab English-language news website.

The UNRWA used the center to distribute the little humanitarian aid that gets into Gaza. Hundreds of people displaced by the Israeli military’s ground invasion of Gaza were sheltering inside the center at the time of the incident.

A Palestinian woman at the scene told Al Jazeera that she saw many dead bodies and that two of her children were injured in the attack.

“What did these innocent children do wrong? They are running from death towards death (and) young men and women are slaughtered by the Israelis,” she said.