Egyptian authorities and Red Cross Participate in Effort for Captive Remains in Gaza
Teams from Egypt and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of deceased hostages captured during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been permitted to operate past the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.
The group has handed over 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which requires it to hand over all remains of captives. The organization said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.
Donald Trump has warned Hamas to begin returning the bodies "quickly, or the other countries involved in this significant peace will take action".
An official representative indicated the Egyptian team has been authorized to work with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation beyond the "demarcation line".
The "yellow line" indicates the border running along the northern, southern and eastern of Gaza that Israel withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of such teams.
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 news will be welcomed by relatives, eager to give them a proper burial.
The ICRC has already been heavily involved in the return of hostages.
Hamas does not transfer its detainees - alive or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and transfers them to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is new.
After more than two years of heavy shelling by Israel, the UN estimates that as much as 84% of the territory has been destroyed completely.
Hamas says it is making every effort to recover hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges locating them under debris of buildings bombed out by the IDF in the region.
It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.
On the weekend, an official representative said that the organization knew where the remains were.
"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the remains of our hostages," the representative said.
The former president shared on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that action would be implemented if the remains of the deceased hostages were not returned quickly.
"Some of the remains are hard to reach, but the rest they can return at present and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has do with their demilitarization," he said.
He added: "Let's see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
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On the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the country would determine which international troops it would allow as part of a proposed international force in Gaza to help secure the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.
"We are in command of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will decide which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he declared speaking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.
On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "numerous nations" had volunteered to be part of the force - but added Israel would have to be comfortable with participants.
This seemed like a reference to the Turkish government, amid reports Israeli officials had rejected the nation's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be deployed without an agreement with the organization.
Israel initiated a armed operation in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one others as hostages.
At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in military actions in Gaza from that time, according to the area's Hamas-run health ministry.