Netanyahu says Israel and Hamas will enter ceasefire's second phase soon
[December 08, 2025]
By MELANIE LIDMAN and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said
Sunday that Israel and Hamas are “very shortly expected to move into the
second phase of the ceasefire,” after Hamas returns the remains of the
last hostage held in Gaza.
Netanyahu spoke during a news conference with visiting German Chancellor
Friedrich Merz and stressed that the second phase, which addresses the
disarming of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, could
begin as soon as the end of the month.
Hamas has yet to hand over the remains of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old
police officer who was killed in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that
sparked the war. His body was taken to Gaza.
The ceasefire's second stage also includes the deployment of an
international force to secure Gaza and forming a temporary Palestinian
government to run day-to-day affairs under the supervision of an
international board led by U.S. President Donald Trump.
A senior Hamas official on Sunday told The Associated Press the group is
ready to discuss “freezing or storing or laying down” its weapons as
part of the ceasefire in a possible approach to one of the most
difficult issues ahead.
Netanyahu says second phase will be challenging
Netanyahu said few people believed the ceasefire’s first stage could be
achieved, and the second phase is just as challenging.
“As I mentioned to the chancellor, there’s a third phase, and that is to
deradicalize Gaza, something that also people believed was impossible.
But it was done in Germany, it was done in Japan, it was done in the
Gulf States. It can be done in Gaza, too, but of course Hamas has to be
dismantled,” he said.
The return of Gvili’s remains — and Israel's return of 15 bodies of
Palestinians in exchange — would complete the first phase of Trump’s
20-point ceasefire plan.
Hamas says it has not been able to reach all remains because they are
buried under rubble left by Israel’s two-year offensive in Gaza. Israel
has accused the militants of stalling and threatened to resume military
operations or withhold humanitarian aid if all remains are not returned.
A group of families of hostages said in a statement that “we cannot
advance to the next phase before Ran Gvili returns home.”
Meanwhile, Israeli military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Sunday
called the so-called Yellow Line that divides the Israeli-controlled
majority of Gaza from the rest of the territory a “new border.”
“We have operational control over extensive parts of the Gaza Strip and
we will remain on those defense lines," Zamir said. "The Yellow Line is
a new border line, serving as a forward defensive line for our
communities and a line of operational activity."
Germany says support for Israel is unchanged
Merz said Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies, is assisting with the
implementation of the second phase by sending officers and diplomats to
a U.S.-led civilian and military coordination center in southern Israel,
and by sending humanitarian aid to Gaza.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and German
Chancellor Friedrich Merz leave the podium following a joint press
conference in Jerusalem Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel
Schalit, Pool)
The chancellor also said Germany still believes that a
two-state-solution is the best possible option but that “the German
federal government remains of the opinion that recognition of a
Palestinian state can only come at the end of such a process, not at
the beginning.”
The U.S.-drafted plan for Gaza leaves the door open to Palestinian
independence. Netanyahu has long asserted that creating a
Palestinian state would reward Hamas and eventually lead to an even
larger Hamas-run state on Israel’s borders.
Netanyahu also said that while he would like to visit Germany, he
hasn’t planned a diplomatic trip because he is concerned about an
arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, the
U.N.'s top war crimes court, last year in connection with the war in
Gaza.
Merz said there are currently no plans for a visit but he may invite
Netanyahu in the future. He added that he is not aware of future
sanctions against Israel from the European Union nor any plans to
renew German bans on military exports to Israel.
Germany had a temporary ban on exporting military equipment to
Israel, which was lifted after the ceasefire began on Oct. 10.
Israel kills militant in Gaza
The Israeli military said it killed a militant who approached its
troops across the Yellow Line.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 370
Palestinians since the start of the ceasefire, and that the bodies
of six people killed in attacks had been brought to local hospitals
over the past 24 hours.
In the original Hamas-led attack in 2023, the militants killed
around 1,200 people and took more than 250 others hostage. Almost
all the hostages or their remains have been returned in ceasefires
or other deals.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 70,360 Palestinians,
according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the
Hamas-run government. The ministry does not differentiate between
civilians and combatants, but says that nearly half the dead have
been women and children. The ministry is part of Gaza’s Hamas
government and its numbers are considered reliable by the U.N. and
other international bodies.
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Grieshaber reported from Berlin.
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