Egyptian authorities along with Red Cross Join Search for Captive Bodies in Gaza
Units from Egypt and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of deceased hostages taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.
The authorities in Israel stated that the teams have been allowed to search past the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has transferred fifteen out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which requires it to hand over all remains of captives. The organization said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
The former US president has warned the organization to start return the bodies "quickly, or the additional nations involved in this great peace will intervene".
An Israeli spokesperson indicated the crew from Egypt has been permitted to work with the ICRC to find the remains, and would use digging equipment and vehicles for the search past the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" indicates the boundary running along the north, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israel pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Until now, Israel has not approved the access of these crews.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.
The development will be welcomed by relatives, eager to give them a dignified funeral.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the return of hostages.
The organization does not transfer its captives - alive or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through the territory and transfers them to the IDF.
But the entry of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.
After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations calculates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
The group claims it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it encounters challenges locating them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.
It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.
On the weekend, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that the organization knew where the remains were.
"If Hamas put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the remains of our hostages," the spokesperson commented.
The former president posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that measures would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not returned quickly.
"Some of the remains are difficult to access, but others they can hand over now and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their disarming," he remarked.
He added: "We will observe what they accomplish over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced Israel would determine which international troops it would allow as part of a planned multinational contingent in the region to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.
"We are in control of our security, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that Israel will decide which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he said talking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.
On the end of the week, the American diplomat said "numerous countries" had offered to be involved in the contingent - but noted Israel would have to be comfortable with participants.
This seemed like a allusion to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the nation's participation.
It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be deployed without an agreement with Hamas.
Israel launched a military campaign in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about 1,200 people and took two hundred fifty-one others as hostages.
At least 68,519 have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.