Egyptian authorities and International Committee of the Red Cross Join Search for Hostage Remains in Gaza Strip
Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the remains of deceased hostages taken during the October 7th incidents, Israeli authorities have verified.
The authorities in Israel stated that the teams have been permitted to search beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the area under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has handed over fifteen out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which requires it to hand over all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now coordinating with officials in Egypt.
The former US president has cautions the organization to begin returning the remains "promptly, or the other countries participating in this significant peace will take action".
An Israeli spokesperson indicated the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to find the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation beyond the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" marks the border running along the north, south and eastern of Gaza that Israel withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.
Previously, Israel has not authorized the entry of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of the resort town in recent weeks.
The development will be greeted positively by relatives, desperate to give them a proper burial.
The ICRC has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of hostages.
Hamas does not transfer its captives - living or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the Red Cross, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the UN estimates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been destroyed completely.
The group claims it is doing its best to recover remains of captives, but it encounters challenges finding them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.
It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.
On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that the organization was aware of where the bodies were.
"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our hostages," the spokesperson commented.
The former president shared on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that measures would be implemented if the remains of the deceased hostages were not handed back quickly.
"Some of the bodies are difficult to access, but the rest they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their disarming," he said.
He added: "Let's see what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced the country would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned international force in Gaza to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.
"We are in control of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will decide which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said speaking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.
On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of nations" had offered to be involved in the contingent - but noted Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid reports Israel had rejected the nation's participation.
It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be stationed without an agreement with Hamas.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about twelve hundred individuals and took 251 others as captives.
At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been lost their lives in military actions in the region from that time, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
