Egyptian authorities along with Red Cross Join Effort for Hostage Remains in Gaza
Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished captured during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have confirmed.
The Israeli government announced that the crews have been allowed to operate past the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has transferred 15 out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The organization stated it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.
Donald Trump has warned Hamas to start return the bodies "quickly, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action".
An official representative said the crew from Egypt has been permitted to work with the ICRC to locate the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation beyond the "demarcation line".
The "yellow line" marks the border running along the north, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israel withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of these crews.
Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of the resort town earlier this month.
The development will be welcomed by family members, desperate to provide a proper burial.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been deeply engaged in the return of captives.
The organization does not transfer its detainees - living or deceased - straight to the IDF, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and hands them on to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is new.
After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations estimates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas claims it is making every effort to retrieve hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges locating them under rubble of buildings destroyed by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now working in coordination with the officials in Egypt.
On Sunday, 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 recover the remains of our captives," the spokesperson said.
The former president posted on his social media account on Saturday that action would be taken if the remains of the deceased hostages were not handed back quickly.
"Some of the remains are difficult to access, but others they can return at present and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their demilitarization," he said.
He continued: "We will observe what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel would decide which international troops it would allow as part of a proposed international force in the region to help secure 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 units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he declared talking at the start of a cabinet meeting.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of countries" had offered to be part of the contingent - but noted Israeli authorities would have to be comfortable with those taking part.
This seemed like a allusion to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the nation's participation.
It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.
Israel initiated a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group killed about 1,200 individuals and took 251 others as captives.
No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen 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.