Egypt along with International Committee of the Red Cross Join Search for Hostage Bodies in Gaza Strip
Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to locate the remains of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been allowed to search beyond the referred to as "yellow line" in the area controlled by military personnel in the Gaza territory.
The group has transferred 15 out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which mandates it to transfer all hostage bodies. The group said it is now coordinating with officials in Egypt.
The former US president has warned Hamas to begin returning the remains "quickly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will take action".
An Israeli spokesperson said the crew from Egypt has been permitted to collaborate with the Red Cross to locate the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search beyond the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" indicates the boundary running along the northern, southern and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israel withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Until now, Israel has not authorized the entry of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.
The news will be greeted positively by family members, desperate to provide a dignified funeral.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been deeply engaged in the return of captives.
The organization does not transfer its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through the territory and hands them on to the IDF.
But the entry of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is new.
After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israeli forces, the United Nations calculates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas says it is doing its best to retrieve hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty locating them under debris of structures bombed out by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now working in coordination with the officials in Egypt.
On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that the organization was aware of where the remains were.
"If Hamas put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our captives," the spokesperson commented.
The former president posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that action would be taken if the remains of the hostages who died were not returned quickly.
"Some of the remains are difficult to access, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their disarming," he remarked.
Trump continued: "We will observe what they do over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
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- Rubio says many nations willing to participate in the region's peacekeeping unit
- New images reveal Israeli control line deeper into the territory than anticipated
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed multinational contingent in Gaza to help secure the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.
"We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding foreign troops that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he said talking at the start of a cabinet meeting.
On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous nations" had offered to be part of the contingent - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This appeared to be a reference to Turkey, amid reports Israel had rejected the nation's participation.
It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an understanding with Hamas.
The Israeli military launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.
No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in military actions in the region from that time, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.
