GENEVA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - More than 3 million Syrians have returned home since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's rule a year ago but a decline in global funding could deter others, the U.N. refugee agency said on Monday.

Some 1.2 million refugees in addition to 1.9 million internally displaced people have gone back home following the civil war that ended with Assad's overthrow, but millions more are yet to return, according to UNHCR.

The agency said much more support was needed to ensure the trend continues.

DAMASCUS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - A year after dictator Bashar al-Assad's ouster in Syria, little has changed in Amina Beqai's desperate quest. She types her missing husband's name yet again into an internet search box, hoping for answers to a 13-year-old question. In vain.

Beqai has nowhere else to turn.

A National Commission for Missing Persons established in May has been gathering evidence of enforced disappearances under Assad, but has yet to offer families any clues on the estimated 150,000 people who vanished in his notorious prisons.

GENEVA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Monday appealed for an aid budget only half the size of what it had hoped for this year, acknowledging a plunge in donor funding at a time when humanitarian needs have never been greater.

By its own admission, the $23 billion U.N. appeal will shut out tens of millions of people in urgent need of help as falling support has forced it to prioritise only the most desperate.

The funding cuts come on top of other challenges for aid agencies that include security risks to staff in conflict zones and lack of access.

DAMASCUS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Syrians will mark the first anniversary of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and his iron-fisted rule on Monday, as the fractured nation struggles to find stability and recover after years of war.

Official celebrations are planned for the central Umayyad Square in Damascus, which has already been packed with jubilant gatherings ahead of December 8, and elsewhere around the country.

JERUSALEM, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not retire from politics if he receives a pardon from the country's president in his years-long corruption trial.

Asked by a reporter if planned on retiring from political life if he receives a pardon, Netanyahu replied: "no".

Netanyahu last month asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, with lawyers for the prime minister arguing that frequent court appearances were hindering Netanyahu's ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for the country.

As city after city fell to a lightning rebel offensive in Syria last December, Iranian forces and diplomats supporting Bashar al-Assad saw the writing on the wall, abandoning the longtime ruler days before his ousting, sources told AFP.

During Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 following the government's brutal repression of pro-democracy protests, Iran was one of Damascus's biggest backers, sending Assad military advisers and forces from its Revolutionary Guards.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday he expected the second phase of the US-sponsored ceasefire plan for Gaza to begin soon, and said he would meet President Donald Trump this month.

The truce, in effect since October 10, has halted the war that began after Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

But it remains delicate as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of violations.

JERUSALEM, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he will meet President Donald Trump later this month, saying a second phase of the U.S. president's Gaza plan was close.

The meeting will discuss possible opportunities for peace and an end to the Palestinian militant group Hamas's rule in the enclave, he said during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Coach Ehab Abu Jazar is guiding a national team that carries on its shoulders all the hopes and sorrows of Palestinian football, but it is his mother, forced by war to live in a Gaza tent, who is his main inspiration and motivation.

The war that broke out following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 put an end to Palestinian league matches, and left athletes in exile fearing for their loved ones in Gaza.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reaffirmed Berlin's support for Israel during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Sunday before talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Merz flew into Israel the day before for his first trip to the country since traditionally solid ties between the two nations were shaken by the Gaza war.