Egypt along with Red Cross Join Effort for Captive Bodies in Gaza Strip
Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the October 7th incidents, Israeli authorities have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been permitted to search beyond the so-called "demarcation line" in the area controlled by military personnel in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has transferred 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The group said it is now working together with officials in Egypt.
The former US president has warned the organization to start return the remains "promptly, or the additional nations involved in this significant peace will intervene".
An official representative indicated the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to find the remains, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the search past the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" marks the border running along the north, southern and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the access of these crews.
Egypt, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.
The development will be greeted positively by relatives, desperate to give them a dignified funeral.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the repatriation of captives.
The organization does not hand over its captives - alive or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and transfers them to the IDF.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israel, the United Nations calculates that as much as 84% of the territory has been destroyed completely.
Hamas claims it is making every effort to recover remains of captives, but it faces difficulty locating them under debris of structures destroyed by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.
On the weekend, an official representative stated that the organization was aware of where the remains were.
"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our hostages," the representative commented.
The former president posted on his social media account on the weekend that measures would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not handed back quickly.
"Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can hand over at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he said.
Trump added: "Let's see what they do over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
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On the weekend, the Israeli leader said Israel would determine which international troops it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent in Gaza to help maintain the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.
"We are in control of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that we will determine which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will proceed," he said talking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "numerous nations" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but noted Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This appeared to be a reference to the Turkish government, amid reports Israeli officials had rejected the nation's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be stationed without an understanding with Hamas.
Israel launched a armed operation in Gaza in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group killed about 1,200 individuals and took 251 others as hostages.
No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.