Egyptian authorities along with International Committee of the Red Cross Participate in Search for Captive Remains in Gaza
Units from Egyptian authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.
The Israeli government stated that the crews have been permitted to operate beyond the referred to as "yellow line" in the region under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has handed over 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered truce agreement, which mandates it to transfer all remains of captives. The organization stated it is now coordinating with officials in Egypt.
Donald Trump has cautions Hamas to begin returning the remains "promptly, or the additional nations involved in this significant peace will take action".
An official representative said the Egyptian team has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to find the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search past the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" indicates the border running along the north, southern and east of Gaza that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.
Until now, Israeli authorities has not authorized the access of such teams.
Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.
The news will be welcomed by relatives, eager to give them a dignified funeral.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of captives.
The organization does not hand over its detainees - alive or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn accompanies them through Gaza and hands them on to the IDF.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israel, the United Nations calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
The group says it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it encounters challenges locating them under debris of structures bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.
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 made more of an effort, they would be able to retrieve the bodies of our captives," the representative said.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that action would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not returned promptly.
"A portion of the remains are difficult to access, but others they can hand over now and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has do with their demilitarization," he remarked.
He continued: "Let's see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely."
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On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced Israel would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned international force in Gaza to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.
"We are in control of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that Israel will decide which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said speaking at the beginning of a government session.
On the end of the week, the American diplomat said "a lot of countries" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but added Israel would have to be satisfied with participants.
This seemed like a allusion to Turkey, amid accounts Israel had rejected the nation's involvement.
It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be stationed without an agreement with the organization.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about twelve hundred individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one others as hostages.
No fewer than 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in Gaza from that time, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.