Updates: Israel wounds child, calls grow for next phase of Gaza truce

To read more on Germany’s position on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, go here.

You can read our report from the ground on Bethlehem’s Christmas tree lights here.

And you can keep up to date on Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the dire situation in the occupied West Bank here.

This live page will be closing soon. Here are the day’s top developments:

• German Chancellor Merz has expressed his support for a two-state solution after a meeting with the Israeli prime minister.
• Five Palestinian prisoners released by Israel have arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, according to our sources.
• Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim tells The AP the group is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons as part of its ceasefire with Israel.
• Israeli soldiers kill a Palestinian and wound another near Azzun in the occupied West Bank, accusing them of throwing stones.
• Gaza’s Health Ministry has said that at least 373 people have been killed and 970 wounded since the start of the ceasefire in October.
• Israel’s military says on X that “dozens” of soldiers from the Israeli navy and the US Fifth Fleet began a joint exercise today, and will continue through this week.

The army says in a short post on X that a car attempted to hit soldiers before speeding off. No harm came to the soldiers.

Soldiers responded with gunfire, and “a hit was confirmed”, the army said, without providing more details.

It added that this occurred during an “offensive activity”.

The Wafa news agency reports that two wounded children, aged 17 and 12, were transported to the hospital by the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Wafa said that the two were attacked by Israeli soldiers at the Beit Furik military checkpoint, which is east of the city of Nablus.

Netanyahu made the remarks when addressing negotiations for a security arrangement with Syria at a conference of ambassadors and heads of missions of the Foreign Ministry in West Jerusalem, according to Israeli media.

Netanyahu said: “We hope to reach an agreement on demilitarisation in southern Syria, but we are preserving our assets.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has affirmed support for the creation of a Palestinian state, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again rejected such a move during the German leader’s inaugural visit to Israel.

At a joint news conference on Sunday after a meeting in Jerusalem, the two leaders spoke of their respective priorities for Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Merz’s trip is playing out under the shadow of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, although Merz and his country, which is one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, do not consider it a genocide.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh reports from Palestine:

In a post on X, the agency says that its teams deliver 40 percent of the primary healthcare in Gaza, and that its services are expanding daily.

“Despite immense challenges, our commitment to [Palestinian refugees] in Gaza and across the region remains,” the post says.

UNRWA has long maintained that it is the only agency established enough to quickly and efficiently deliver the services that hundreds of thousands of victims of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza desperately need.

Despite this, the Israeli government insists that the agency has no role in the Strip.

Live bullet shrapnel from Israeli forces wounded a child in the town of Burqin, west of Jenin, according to the Wafa news agency.

Sources told the agency that Israeli forces stormed the town and opened live fire at Palestinians, injuring a 12-year-old child in the knee with bullet shrapnel while he was riding his bicycle.

Bethlehem has lit up its Christmas tree for the first time in two years.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza and continuing assaults in the occupied West Bank have prevented Palestinians from celebrating until now.

Palestinians hope the first Christmas tree lighting ceremony in three years will encourage tourists to return to the city, which has been undergoing a severe economic crisis.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh went to witness the gathering in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank:

In Burqin, west of the city of Jenin, a 12-year-old child was wounded when Israeli forces fired live ammunition in the town, with shrapnel hitting him in the knee.

North of the city of Ramallah, in Abu Qash, Israeli forces recently began a raid, fanning out in the neighbourhood. No arrests have been reported.

Major General Diodato Abagnara, the commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), says Israeli attacks on Lebanon are a “constant and blatant violation of Resolution 1701”.

In remarks to the Israeli media, he said, “The situation is really, really fragile” in Lebanon, and “a simple mistake could create a big escalation”.

“Any kind of direct attack against UNIFIL troops is unacceptable,” he said, apparently referring to past Israeli strikes on the peacekeepers.

UNIFIL says it recorded thousands of air and ground violations by Israel inside Lebanese territory since the ceasefire began.

Israeli settlers have attacked vehicles owned by Palestinians near the town of Mukhmas in the northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Wafa news agency, citing a statement by the Jerusalem Governorate.

The statement said that a group of settlers attacked vehicles on the main road near Mukhmas in the evening, without any reported injuries.

As Gaza fades from world headlines, Muslim scholar Omar Suleiman tells Al Jazeera that abandoning the Palestinian struggle now would repeat the very failures that enabled Israel’s genocidal war.

He also criticises Arab and Muslim countries that have normalised their relations with Israel.

Watch the interview below:

• Israeli forces have stormed the town of ad-Dhahiriya, located south of Hebron.
• In Hebron, there is a general strike in protest against the killing of two young Palestinians by Israeli forces in the Bab al-Zawiya area in the centre of the city. The Israeli military said the two Palestinians had tried to carry out a car-ramming attack.
• The Palestine Red Crescent Society says its crews provided first aid to a young man who was beaten by Israeli forces near the separation wall in the ar-Ram area.
• On a more positive note, Bethlehem has lit its Christmas tree for the first time since Israel began its genocide on Palestinians in Gaza.

Here are the highlights on the US president’s peace plan from Hamas official Basem Naim’s interview with the AP:

• The plan is in need of a lot of clarification.
• We are welcoming a UN force to be near the borders, supervising the ceasefire agreement, reporting about violations, and preventing any kind of escalations.
• But we do not accept that these forces have any kind of mandates authorising them to do or to be implemented inside the Palestinian territories.
• The force shall not take on the issue of disarmament.
• Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have made progress on the formation of the new technocratic committee set to run Gaza’s daily affairs.

Basem Naim says this can be open to discussion as part of its ceasefire with Israel.

In an interview with the AP in Doha, Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said: “We are open to have a comprehensive approach in order to avoid further escalations or in order to avoid any further clashes or explosions.”

Naim said Hamas retains its “right to resist”, but said the group is ready to lay down its arms as part of a process aimed at leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

He gave few details on how this might work, but suggested a long-term truce of five or 10 years for discussions to take place.

“This time has to be used seriously and in a comprehensive way,” he said, adding that Hamas is “very open-minded” about what to do with its weapons.

“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.

Israel demands Hamas’s full disarmament, one of the thorniest issues in the peace process.

Israel’s military says on X that “dozens” of soldiers from the Israeli Navy and the US Fifth Fleet began a joint exercise today and will continue through this week.

“The aim of the exercise is to strengthen strategic and operational cooperation between the two navies and practice dealing with various regional threats,” the army said.

The US and Israeli militaries have a long history of close cooperation, from training to intelligence sharing to joint exercises like this one.