Egyptian authorities and Red Cross Participate in Search for Captive Bodies in Gaza Strip
Units from Egypt and the ICRC have been authorized to locate the bodies of deceased hostages taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.
The authorities in Israel announced that the crews have been allowed to operate beyond the referred to as "yellow line" in the region controlled by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Hamas has handed over 15 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 group said it is now working together with officials in Egypt.
Donald Trump has cautions Hamas to start return the bodies "promptly, or the other countries participating in this significant peace will intervene".
An Israeli spokesperson indicated the crew from Egypt has been authorized to collaborate with the Red Cross to locate the bodies, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the search beyond the "demarcation line".
The "yellow line" indicates the border running along the northern, south and eastern of Gaza that Israel pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the access of these crews.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.
The news will be welcomed by family members, eager to give them a dignified funeral.
The ICRC has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of hostages.
Hamas does not hand over its captives - alive or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.
But the entry of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations estimates that as much as 84% of the area has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas claims it is making every effort to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of buildings destroyed by the IDF in the region.
It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.
On Sunday, an official representative said that Hamas was aware of where the bodies were.
"If the group made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our hostages," the spokesperson said.
Trump posted on his social media account on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not returned quickly.
"A portion of the remains are difficult to access, but others they can return now and, for unknown reasons, 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, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the country would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a planned international force in the region to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.
"We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that we will decide which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he declared talking at the start of a cabinet meeting.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of countries" had offered to be part of the contingent - but added Israel would have to be satisfied with those taking part.
This appeared to be a allusion to the Turkish government, amid reports Israel had rejected the nation's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.
The Israeli military initiated a military campaign in Gaza in following the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about twelve hundred individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one additional persons as captives.
At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza from that time, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.