TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel and Hamas are “very soon 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 press conference with visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and stressed that the second phase, which involves the disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, could begin at 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 October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that sparked the war. His body was taken to Gaza.
The second phase of the ceasefire also includes the deployment of an international force to secure Gaza and the formation of an interim Palestinian government to run day-to-day affairs under the supervision of an international council led by US President Donald Trump.
A senior Hamas official told The Associated Press on Sunday that 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 the second phase will be a challenge
Netanyahu said few people believed the first phase of the ceasefire could be achieved, and the second phase was just as challenging.
“As I mentioned to the chancellor, there is a third phase, which is the deradicalization of Gaza, something that people thought 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, but of course Hamas has to be dismantled,” he said.
The return of Gvili’s remains — and Israel’s return of 15 Palestinian bodies in return — would complete the first phase of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan.
Hamas says it has not been able to reach all the remains because they are buried under the rubble left by Israel’s two-year offensive in Gaza. Israel accused the militants of stalling and threatened to resume military operations or withdraw humanitarian aid if all the remains were not returned.
A group of hostage families said in a statement that “we cannot move to the next phase before Ran Gvili returns home.”
Meanwhile, Israeli military chief of staff General 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 large 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 defensive forward 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 helping to implement the second phase by sending officers and diplomats to a US-led civilian-military coordination center in southern Israel and by sending humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The chancellor also said that Germany still believes that a two-state solution is the best possible option, but that “the German federal government remains of the view that recognition of a Palestinian state can only come at the end of such a process, not at the beginning.”
The US plan for Gaza leaves the door open to Palestinian independence. Netanyahu has long asserted that the creation of a Palestinian state would reward Hamas and ultimately lead to an even larger state run by Hamas on Israel’s borders.
Netanyahu also said that while he would like to visit Germany, he has not planned a diplomatic trip because he is concerned about an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, the UN’s top war crimes court, last year in connection with the Gaza war.
Merz said there are currently no plans for a visit, but that he may invite Netanyahu in the future. He added that he was not aware of future sanctions against Israel from the European Union, nor of 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 10 October.
Israel kills a militant in Gaza
The Israeli army said it had 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 cease-fire began, and the bodies of six people killed in the attacks have been brought to local hospitals in the past 24 hours.
In the initial attack led by Hamas in 2023, the militants killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage. Almost all of the hostages or their remains have been returned through cease-fires or other agreements.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 70,360 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which operates under the Hamas government. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says nearly half of the dead were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government in Gaza, and its figures are considered reliable by the UN and other international bodies.
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Grieshaber reported from Berlin.
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