Egypt along with International Committee of the Red Cross Join Search for Hostage Remains in Gaza Strip
Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of hostages who perished captured during the October 7th incidents, Israeli authorities have verified.
The Israeli government stated that the teams have been allowed to operate past the referred to as "yellow line" in the region under the control of Israeli forces in Gaza.
The group has transferred fifteen out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all hostage bodies. The organization stated 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 participating in this great peace will take action".
An official representative indicated the crew from Egypt has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search beyond the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the north, south and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israel has not approved the access of such teams.
Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of the resort town in recent weeks.
The development will be greeted positively by family members, desperate to provide a dignified funeral.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of hostages.
The organization does not transfer its detainees - living or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is new.
After more than two years of heavy shelling by Israel, the United Nations estimates that as much as 84% of the territory has been destroyed completely.
Hamas claims it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it encounters challenges locating them under rubble of buildings destroyed by the IDF in Gaza.
It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.
On Sunday, an official representative said that Hamas knew where the bodies were.
"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our captives," the spokesperson said.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that measures would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not handed back quickly.
"A portion of the bodies are difficult to access, but the rest they can hand over at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he said.
Trump continued: "Let's see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On Sunday, the Israeli leader said the country would decide which international troops it would permit as part of a planned multinational contingent in Gaza to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.
"We are in command of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that we will determine which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he said speaking at the beginning of a government session.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous nations" had volunteered to be involved in the force - but noted Israel would have to be satisfied with those taking part.
This seemed like a allusion to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israeli officials had rejected the nation's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be stationed without an agreement with Hamas.
The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group killed about twelve hundred individuals and took 251 additional persons as hostages.
No fewer than 68,519 have been killed in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.