Egypt and International Committee of the Red Cross Join Effort for Captive Bodies in Gaza Strip
Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to search for the remains of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.
The Israeli government stated that the teams have been allowed to search beyond the so-called "demarcation line" in the area under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has transferred fifteen out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which mandates it to transfer all hostage bodies. The organization stated it is now coordinating with officials in Egypt.
The former US president has warned Hamas to begin returning the remains "promptly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will take action".
An official representative said the Egyptian team has been authorized to work with the Red Cross to find the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search beyond the "demarcation line".
The "yellow line" indicates the boundary running along the north, southern and east of Gaza that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Until now, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of these crews.
Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.
The development will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to give them a dignified funeral.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of hostages.
Hamas does not hand over its captives - alive or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn accompanies them through Gaza and transfers them to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israeli forces, the UN calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been destroyed completely.
The group says it is making every effort to recover remains of captives, but it encounters challenges finding them under rubble of structures bombed out by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.
On Sunday, an official representative stated that Hamas knew where the bodies were.
"If Hamas put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the remains of our hostages," the spokesperson commented.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not handed back promptly.
"A portion of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he said.
Trump added: "Let's see what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am watching this with great attention."
- Palestinian minors losing their lives as they wait for Israel to enable evacuations
- The US Secretary of State states lots of countries prepared to participate in the region's security force
- Recent photographs reveal demarcation zone deeper into Gaza than expected
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent in Gaza to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.
"We are in control of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said talking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of countries" had offered to be involved in the contingent - but added Israel would have to be comfortable with those taking part.
This seemed like a reference to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had rejected the country's involvement.
It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.
The Israeli military launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred individuals and took 251 others as hostages.
At least 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.
