With little fanfare, the White House has announced "phase two" of the Gaza ceasefire has begun — at least, in terms of how it views the situation with the war-ravaged territory.
A struggle will continue over exactly how the intractable issues standing in the way of a lasting peace in the strip will be resolved.
The ceasefire began almost 14 weeks weeks ago, days after Donald Trump and Netanyahu announced a "20-point peace plan" that the US President said would end the war.
The first phase of the plan, which is still in effect, led to the release of all living Israeli hostages — and most of the dead — as well as a significant change in the intensity of attacks in Gaza.
It was also meant to lead to a dramatic increase in the level of aid being brought into the strip, although Hamas says deliveries have been far below what's needed.
"Phase two", according to the plan, would lead to a few more dramatic changes: a transitional authority being brought in to govern the strip in place of Hamas; an "international stabilisation force" deployed; the IDF to continue withdrawing; and Hamas to disarm.
But how some of these issues will be resolved is still unclear.
So what will change, if anything, once 'phase two' begins — a period of, potentially, greater transformation and peace in Gaza — and where does the situation stand at this point?
Ongoing attacks
The scale of air strikes on Gaza has reduced under phase one of the ceasefire — but those attacks have not stopped altogether.
Palestinian health authorities say 449 people have been killed and 1,246 injured since the truce came into force — the majority civilians, and many women and children.
Israel insists it has launched strikes to enforce the ceasefire, accusing Hamas of violating the deal and re-establishing itself in areas the IDF has withdrawn from.
But Hamas argues the high civilian toll suggests otherwise.
Critics of Israel would question whether it is an indication of how the country will act moving forward — citing its ongoing attacks in Lebanon, after more than a year of a truce with Hezbollah there.
Hostages
The Israeli Prime Minister made it clear that he was not expecting "phase two" to begin until the final dead Israeli hostage, 24-year-old Ran Gvili, was returned from Gaza.
When the ceasefire came into force, there were 20 living and 28 deceased Israeli captives — all of whom were required to be handed over under phase one of the deal. Now, just one remains.
Israel has criticised Hamas for delays in returning the remains of hostages, accusing it of breaching the deal.
Hamas has said locating some of the bodies has been difficult, considering the scale of destruction in Gaza and the fact some of the areas where the remains were believed to be were in Israeli-controlled territory.
"The US expects Hamas to comply fully with its obligations, including the immediate return of the final deceased hostage," US peace envoy Steve Witkoff said on social media platform X in announcing "phase two".
"Failure to do so will bring serious consequences."
Rafah
The militant group Hamas, which is a proscribed terrorist organisation under Australian law, has in turn accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire by refusing to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to two-way traffic for people and aid.
Israel insisted it would not allow that until the final hostage returned, and announced plans on December 3, 2025, to allow Palestinians to leave through Rafah — without putting a firm date on when that would happen.
Egypt said that plan was announced without consultation and coordination, and joined with a number of other Arab and Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Indonesia in condemning Israel's announcement, adding that the crossing must be opened from both sides.
"The ministers underscore their absolute rejection of any attempts to expel the Palestinian people from their land," the countries' foreign ministers said in a statement.
Disarming
A central part of the second phase of US President Donald Trump's peace plan is that Hamas will demilitarise.
While that is part of the agreed deal, getting to that point is where things differ.
On December 7, 2025, senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told the Associated Press it was willing to discuss options.
"We can talk about freezing or storing or laying down, with the Palestinian guarantees, not to use it at all during this ceasefire time or truce," he said.
Whether that would satisfy Israel demands for disarmament, or the United States, remains unclear.
Another senior Hamas official, Khaled Mashal, has been quoted as saying the group's weapons "are our people's right to self-defence," seemingly casting doubt on Hamas's willingness to disarm.
To this point, Hamas continues to wield control in the strip. In early December, it targeted anti-Hamas militia, killing senior rivals and forcing others to surrender.
Since the truce came into force, it has deployed its police forces back onto the streets and executed claimed collaborators.
Another outlet, Middle East Eye, reported that Hamas would halt any attacks on Israel for up to a decade, and bury its weapons, if Israeli forces completely withdrew from the strip.
Israel has always insisted it would maintain a so-called "buffer zone" along the Israel-Gaza border, once the peace plan had progressed.
Hamas has previously said it was not prepared to lay down its weapons while Israeli forces continued operating in the strip.
The timeline, and specifics of such a deal, are likely to be top of the agenda when Mr Netanyahu meets Donald Trump in the US at the end of December.
International troops
The Trump plan states that an international stabilisation force would be deployed into Gaza to guarantee security control of the strip as part of phase two of the truce.
The makeup of the force, and the timeline for its deployment, are unclear.
A number of countries have said they are prepared to join — from Egypt to Indonesia. But Israel is insisting it will have veto power on countries taking part.
For example, Mr Netanyahu said Turkiye would play no role in the force despite its stated intention to join and its role in negotiating the ceasefire deal. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said the closest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would get to Gaza was at the end of a set of binoculars.
Debate over the force appears to have cooled, although it might be reheated now that the US has declared progress.
The board of peace
While Donald Trump has said he will chair the "Board of Peace", the only other name originally associated with the organisation designed to help govern Gaza was the former UK prime minister, Tony Blair.
But on December 8, the Financial Times reported he had been dropped because of staunch opposition from Arab nations.
They were reportedly concerned about Blair's legacy, given he supported the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Other members of the board, and their duties, remain unknown — although there are reports British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been offered a role.
The board's representative on the ground, working with the new technocratic Palestinian authority to run Gaza, is former UN Middle East envoy and Bulgarian politician, Nickolay Mladenov.
He recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netantyahu, and seemed to get his tick of approval.
The Palestinians who will govern Gaza have also started to be revealed — headed by former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank, Ali Shaath.
Territory and rebuilding
Israel holds more than 50 per cent of Gaza's territory — the boundary of which is known as the "Yellow Line".
The peace plan dictates a staged withdrawal, as the truce progresses.
But there are deep fears Israel will seek to hold on to land in Gaza, effectively creating a permanent partitioned territory.
On December 7, the Israeli military's Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal 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."
The UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk said it could not be called "a border or anything else, it is about a territory [Gaza] that needs to be respected in its entirety."
Rebuilding efforts could occur in the Israeli-controlled areas, but not in Hamas-dominated land, according to those critics.
Again, there are no firm timelines on Israeli withdrawals, or rebuilding, fuelling those concerns about Israel continuing to occupy Gaza. But it's partly reliant on an international stabilisation force being deployed.
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