Name: Will Israel ever get to Phase 2 of the Gaza ceasefire? | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-12-24T17:09:30.000Z
Duration: 17 min 23 s
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US President Trump is pushing for the next phase of the UN backed ceasefire plan.

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He's due to discuss the peace process with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this month.

Now one obstacle is the return of the last dead hostages held or last dead hostage held by Hamas.

And many other issues have yet to be resolved.

More than two months after the start of the truce's first phase, the vast majority of the territory's more than 2 million people are still displaced with shortages of food, water and medical supplies.

Aid groups have accused Israel of not upholding its commitment to allow aid enter the strip without interference.

All the while, and despite the ceasefire, there's been no let up in the bloodshed.

Since October 10, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli military says several soldiers have been killed by Hamas militants in that time.

The return of the last Israeli hostages remains is one of the main sticking points from moving into the second phase of the truce.

So far, they have not been handed over to Israel by Hamas.

Once this takes place, phase two could begin under the peace plan backed by US President Donald Trump.

Hamas's disarmament, the deployment of an international stabilization force, the formation of a technocratic Palestinian committee to administer Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

But serious hurdles remain when it comes to Hamas's disarmament.

A senior Hamas official said the group would be open to freezing their weapons but not to total disarmament, which is part of Trump's peace plan.

No countries have committed to being part of an international stabilization force over safety concerns and the possibility of having to deal with armed factions in Gaza.

An agreement over the formation of a technocratic Palestinian committee within Gaza also remains unresolved.

And finally, the Israeli military's total withdrawal from Gaza appears to also have been put in.

They've moved to the so called yellow line from the blue zone inside the Gaza Strip.

In time, the Israeli military is supposed to withdraw to a smaller security zone shown here in red.

But it's unclear if they will totally withdraw from the territory or remain in a small buffer zone inside Gaza.

A complex set of issues that need to be ironed out before phase three can even be contemplated.

Daniel Levy is a former Israeli peace negotiator and the president of the US Middle East Project that's a not for profit policy institute focused on promoting Israeli Palestinian peace.

Now President Donald Trump wants to Move quickly into phase two of this UN endorsed Gaza cease fire plan.

From your perspective, is this urgency constructive?

Palestinians are still being killed every day.

Perhaps less than a quarter of the aid that was committed by Israel that would be allowed to enter Gaza.

Israel was allowed to get away first of all with starvation during the more intense period of the genocide.

And now it's supposed to at least lead a modicum of assistance in it's preventing that from going in the conditions we see.

We should see them on the screens more often.

It would be good if you had journalists there or insisted on having journalists there.

Nonetheless, the conditions are appalling.

The way one goes about it, the way the American President goes about it is of course the key question.

Because thus far this is a ceasefire in name only, of course.

And while one welcomes the the release of the Israelis who were held, the release of Palestinians held by Israel, one welcomes that it's in the single figures, not the triple digits.

Palestinians being killed every day and at least the full on starvation blockade is eased.

And Trump will have to lean in and insist on the recalcitrant party, which is primarily Israel here, living up to its commitments, which it is not doing.

I want to get to the quality of the cease fire in a second.

Israel of course denies it is committing or it has committed acts of genocide in Gaza.

I first want to look at one of the major obstacles here on moving on to phase two, the return of the last deceased Israeli hostage.

Search efforts are reportedly delayed due to bad weather.

If his remains were tragically never to be found, would that leave the process forever stuck in phase one?

Well, I think that the Israelis have a number of excuses for not moving on with the process.

I think most people would look at this and say the remarkable thing after all the devastation and destruction is that all bar one of those bodies have somehow been returned.

Israel, of course is holding Palestinians whose fate is unknown.

It has disappeared a number of Palestinians, so we do not know the fate of many Palestinians.

There is apparently no interest in sending in rubble removal equipment to get to dead Palestinian bodies.

But it is right to try and get Rankville back and I hope that his family.

It's going to be heartbreaking closure, but I hope his family does get closure on this.

But that, that is not a reason to move forward when the deal was done.

President Trump actually said, I'm not sure we can get all the bodies back, which I think is a reasonable thing.

So, no, what we should see is forward movement.

And these aren't, you know, Israel denies.

I don't know why you need always to insert that phrase that Israel denies.

Let the Israeli officials do that if they so require.

I'm not sure that it's your job to do that.

But anyway, Israel should be adhering to the agreement, not killing Palestinians on a daily basis, not preventing at least 75% of the trucks that are supposed to be allowed in access to Gaza, not preventing people from having even temporary shelter in these appalling conditions.

So, no, I do not think the fate, tragic as it is, of one unreturned body is going to be the determining factor.

Hundreds of Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have reportedly been killed since the truce began in October.

Both sides are accusing each other of violations on a daily basis.

I don't want to make light of the improvement in the situation.

Nicole and I think we both acknowledged that it is the case that hostages released, Palestinian prisoners released.

The intensity of that starvation blockade is not what it was.

It is still criminal and a violation of international law, but it's not at that same level.

The killings are still criminal and a violation of international law by Israel.

Every single day, hundreds of civilians killed since the supposed ceasefire.

So it's an improvement, but it is not a ceasefire.

The American president tells us that after 3,000 years, there is now peace in the Middle East.

I think that can be filed alongside other things that are patently untrue that have been spoken by that president.

And I think one of the problems is not just Trump's self created reality that he lives in and the claims that he has, but

that so many other actors are keen to say.

Let's put this in the low maintenance pile and move on.

That applies to many of Israel and America's Western allies, none more criminally negligent than the German government.

And the visit by Chancellor Mertz to Israel, the resumption of military sales, the threats around were Israel to be barred from Eurovision.

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Will Israel ever get to Phase 2 of the Gaza ceasefire? | DW News

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