US President Reveals Date for Implementation of Second Phase of Gaza Agreement

US President Donald Trump said that the second phase of the Gaza agreement "will begin soon." Axios correspondent Barak Ravid quoted Trump in a tweet on his X platform account as saying that "the second phase of the Gaza agreement is moving forward... and will be implemented soon."

For his part, Netanyahu renewed his threat to Hamas, saying that the second phase aims to disarm the movement and make Gaza without weapons, explaining, "I think there is a third goal, which is to de-radicalize the residents of Gaza."

In return, Hamas renewed its demand to the mediators and guarantor countries of the Gaza agreement to "restrain the occupation and not allow Netanyahu to evade the agreement and stop bombing civilians," considering that "the occupation's bombing of displaced persons' tents in Khan Yunis is a war crime and a disregard for the ceasefire agreement."

Netanyahu's office announced last Monday that Trump had extended an invitation to the Israeli Prime Minister during a phone call to hold a meeting soon at the White House, which may be on December 26.

The Kuwait Specialized Hospital in Gaza reported the death of five people, including two children, in a bombing by Israeli drones on displaced persons' tents in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis.

Earlier, Israeli drones launched four raids west of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip, resulting in injuries.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation stated that the raids on Khan Yunis come in the wake of the Rafah incident, in which four soldiers from the Golani Brigade and the Gaza Division were injured, one of them seriously, in clashes with resistance fighters in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said that the injuries in the Golani Brigade and the Gaza Division occurred in confrontations with gunmen who emerged from a tunnel in eastern Rafah.

Since taking office for his second term, Trump has provided strong support for Israel, which has been waging a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 8, 2023, resulting in more than 70,000 martyrs and about 171,000 injured Palestinians, most of them children and women.