Egyptian authorities and International Committee of the Red Cross Join Effort for Captive Bodies in Gaza
Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to locate the remains of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel announced that the crews have been allowed to operate beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the area controlled by Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.
The group has transferred 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to hand over all remains of captives. The organization said it is now coordinating with officials in Egypt.
Donald Trump has cautions the organization to begin returning the bodies "quickly, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action".
An official representative said the crew from Egypt has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to find the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the search beyond the "demarcation line".
The "yellow line" marks the border running along the northern, south and east of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of the resort town earlier this month.
The development will be greeted positively by family members, desperate to give them a proper burial.
The ICRC has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of hostages.
Hamas does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - straight to the IDF, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through the territory and transfers them to the IDF.
But the entry of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the UN calculates that as much as 84% of the area has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas says it is making every effort 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 coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.
On the weekend, an Israeli government spokesperson said that Hamas knew where the remains were.
"If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to retrieve the bodies of our captives," the spokesperson commented.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that measures would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not handed back 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 disarming," he said.
He added: "We will observe what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
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On the weekend, the Israeli leader said the country would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed international force in Gaza to help secure the truce under the former president's initiative.
"We are in command of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that we will determine which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he declared 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 contingent - but noted Israel would have to be satisfied with participants.
This appeared to be a allusion to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israeli officials had vetoed the country's involvement.
It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be stationed without an understanding with Hamas.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group killed about 1,200 people and captured 251 others as captives.
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 Hamas-run health ministry.