Egypt along with International Committee of the Red Cross Join Search for Captive Bodies in Gaza
Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to locate the bodies of deceased hostages taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.
The authorities in Israel announced that the teams have been allowed to search past the referred to as "demarcation line" in the region under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.
The group has transferred 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The group said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
The former US president has warned Hamas to begin returning the remains "quickly, or the additional nations involved in this great peace will intervene".
An official representative indicated the crew from Egypt has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to find the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the search beyond the "demarcation line".
The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the north, south and east of the Gaza territory that Israel withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.
Until now, Israel has not authorized the entry of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was signed in the coastal city of the resort town in recent weeks.
The development will be greeted positively by relatives, desperate to provide a dignified funeral.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the return of hostages.
The organization does not hand over its detainees - living or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israeli forces, the UN estimates that as much as 84% of the area has been destroyed completely.
The group claims it is doing its best to recover hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges finding them under debris of structures destroyed by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.
On the weekend, an Israeli government spokesperson said that the organization was aware of where the remains were.
"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the remains of our hostages," the spokesperson said.
Trump posted on his social media account on Saturday that measures would be taken 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 hand over now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their disarming," he remarked.
He added: "We will observe what they do over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On the weekend, the Israeli leader said the country would decide which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned multinational contingent in the region 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 foreign troops that we will decide which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting.
On Friday, the American diplomat indicated "a lot of nations" had offered 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 stationed without an agreement with the organization.
Israel launched a military campaign in the territory in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group killed about 1,200 individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one additional persons as captives.
At least 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.