Egyptian authorities along with International Committee of the Red Cross Participate in Search for Captive Bodies in Gaza
Units from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been permitted to search beyond the referred to as "yellow line" in the region under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has handed over fifteen out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which mandates it to transfer all remains of captives. The group said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.
Donald Trump has warned the organization to begin returning the bodies "quickly, or the other countries involved in this significant peace will take action".
An Israeli spokesperson said the crew from Egypt has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the search past the "demarcation line".
The "yellow line" indicates the border running along the north, south and east of Gaza that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israel has not approved the access of these crews.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was signed in the coastal city of the resort town earlier this month.
The news will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to give them a dignified funeral.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the repatriation of hostages.
Hamas does not hand over its captives - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through the territory and hands them on to the IDF.
But the entry of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza territory is new.
After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israel, the UN calculates that as much as 84% of the area has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas claims it is making every effort to recover remains of captives, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.
It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.
On Sunday, an official representative stated that the organization was aware of where the bodies were.
"If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our captives," the spokesperson said.
The former president posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that action would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not handed back promptly.
"A portion of the bodies are hard to reach, but the rest they can return at present and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their demilitarization," he remarked.
He continued: "We will observe what they do over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On Sunday, the Israeli leader said the country would determine which international troops it would allow as part of a planned international force in the region to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.
"We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will decide which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will proceed," he said talking at the start of a cabinet meeting.
On the end of the week, the American diplomat indicated "a lot of nations" had offered to be part of the force - but noted Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This appeared to be a allusion to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israeli officials had vetoed the nation's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be stationed without an understanding with Hamas.
Israel initiated a military campaign in Gaza in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred people and took two hundred fifty-one additional persons as captives.
At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in the region since then, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.