JERUSALEM, Dec. 9 — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he would meet with U.S. President Donald Trump later this month to discuss the second phase of the U.S. ceasefire initiative for Gaza, where a comprehensive calm has not yet been achieved.

A U.S.-brokered truce came into effect on Oct. 10 after Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel two years ago, but Israel and Hamas accuse each other of violations.

“We very shortly expect to move into the second phase, which is more difficult,” Netanyahu told the media alongside visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Jerusalem, adding that he would hold talks with Trump at the end of December to discuss “opportunities for peace” in the region.

Merz, for his part, noted that phase two “must come now,” and stressed Germany’s support for a two-state solution to the conflict.

During the first stage, Palestinian militants have released the remaining 47 living and dead Israeli hostages except the body of an Israeli police officer.

The second phrase, according to the U.S. proposal, is expected to address the more difficult issues of enforcing Hamas disarmament, the further withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the deployment of an international stabilisation force.

Head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya, said on Saturday that the group will give up its weapons “if the (Israeli) occupation ends.”

“Our weapon is linked to the presence of the occupation and aggression, and if the occupation ends, this weapon will be handed over to the state,” he said.

“Weapons are still under discussion with the factions and mediators, and the agreement is still in its early stages,” he added during an interview with Al Jazeera.

Hamas had previously refused to disarm, deeming it a red line, while Israel insists on the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza as a key condition in the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Despite the truce, more than 360 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the period, bringing the total Palestinian death toll to 70,360, according to local health authorities. Three Israeli soldiers have also been killed. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)

KIEV/WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, Dec. 9 — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that talks with U.S. representatives on a peace plan for Ukraine have been “constructive” but “not easy,” as he is scheduled to meet European leaders this week.

“The American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “The conversation was constructive, although not easy.” Intensive diplomatic efforts have been underway between the relevant parties over the past few days.

On Saturday, U.S. and Ukrainian delegations concluded three-day talks in Miami, Florida, focusing on territorial issues and U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, U.S. online media outlet Axios reported.

Sources told Axios that the discussion on territory was “difficult,” as Kiev has rejected Russia’s key demand to withdraw troops from parts of the Donbass that Ukraine continues to occupy, while the United States was trying to develop new ideas to bridge the gap.

Another major topic was U.S. security guarantees for Kiev, on which the parties made “significant progress,” the report added.

At the end of the Miami talks, Zelensky held a phone call with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Describing the call as “long and substantive,” Zelensky said on X that Ukraine remains committed to working with the United States “in good faith” to “genuinely achieve peace.”

Zelensky is expected to meet British, French and German leaders in London on Monday, with further talks planned in Brussels.

Meanwhile, Trump claimed on Sunday that Zelensky “isn’t ready” to sign off on a U.S-authored peace proposal aimed at ending the crisis.

“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn’t,” Trump told reporters before taking part in the Kennedy Center Honors event.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that outstanding issues remain regarding the Ukraine peace plan after his meeting with U.S. envoys at the Kremlin last week.

Moreover, Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that the adjustments made to the new U.S. National Security Strategy are “largely consistent with our vision,” RIA Novosti reported.

Peskov said the new U.S. national security strategy leaves room for hope that joint efforts might result in a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.

“There are phrases opposing confrontation and those favoring dialogue, building good relations. This is what Putin is talking about.

This is gratifying, of course,” he said. The White House on Friday released a new national security strategy that paints European allies as weak and aims to reassert America’s dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

“It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, in order to stabilize European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia, as well as to enable the post-hostilities reconstruction of Ukraine to enable its survival as a viable state,” the document read. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators held the second day of talks in Miami, the U.S. state of Florida, continuing discussions on the U.S.-proposed peace plan for the Ukraine crisis, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said Friday, according to a report from U.S. online media outlet Axios.

The report said that the talks came after a roughly five-hour meeting that ended early Wednesday among U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Witkoff and Kushner met Ukrainian officials for two hours on Thursday evening and resumed talks on Friday morning. They briefed the Ukrainians in detail about their meeting with Putin and presented new ideas to bridge the gaps between the parties, according to the report.

The Thursday talks were “positive,” and they are likely to continue into the weekend, a U.S. official told Axios. The Ukrainian delegation in Miami is headed by Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s secretary of National Security and Defense Council, and Andrii Hnatov, chief of the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces, the report said. (Xinhua)

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 6 — The United States has become a major source of high-level firearm-related violence plaguing the Caribbean region, according to a recent report jointly released by multiple regional and international organizations.

The region’s violence-related activities are on the rise, including the recruitment of children and adolescents into armed gangs, shootings in hospitals and gang violence, which are closely linked to firearm proliferation, said the report.

The “Pathway to Policy: Firearms Trafficking and Public Health in the Caribbean” was released by institutions including the Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security, the Caribbean Public Health Agency and the Small Arms Survey on Dec. 2.

Depicting the United States as an important source of illegal firearms in the region, the report indicated that in recent years, a large number of illegal weapons seized by law enforcement agencies in Caribbean countries are closely related to gun stores, illegal weapons traffickers and port transportation in the United States.

At least 27 of the 29 reported shipments related to illegal firearms seized at ports in the Bahamas, Guyana and other Caribbean countries from 2017 to early 2025 came from the United States, said the report, adding most trafficking from the United States to the Caribbean is accomplished via maritime shipping.

Of particular concern are traffickers in the U.S. states of Florida and Georgia, which were the sources of nearly 70 percent of firearms seized in six Caribbean countries, including the Bahamas and Jamaica, the report showed.

There is increasingly strong evidence showing “that traffickers in the United States are indeed the predominant source of illicit firearms in most of the region,” it concluded.

The report calls on the United States to take measures such as strengthening the supervision of gun exports and enhancing port inspection efforts to curb the deteriorating cross-border arms smuggling. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)