Egypt along with Red Cross Join Effort for Captive Bodies in Gaza
Units from Egypt 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 authorities in Israel stated that the crews 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 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a American-mediated truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The group stated it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.
The former US president has warned the organization to start return the remains "quickly, or the additional nations involved in this great peace will intervene".
An official representative said the crew from Egypt has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation past the "demarcation line".
The "yellow line" marks the boundary running along the northern, south and east of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.
Until now, Israel has not approved the entry of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of the resort town earlier this month.
The news will be greeted positively by family members, desperate to give them a proper burial.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of captives.
Hamas does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - straight to the IDF, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through Gaza and transfers them to the IDF.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is new.
After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israel, the United Nations calculates that as much as 84% of the area has been destroyed completely.
Hamas says it is doing its best to retrieve hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges finding them under debris of buildings destroyed 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 put in greater work, they would be able to recover the bodies of our captives," the spokesperson said.
The former president shared on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not returned quickly.
"A portion of the remains are difficult to access, but the rest they can return now and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their demilitarization," he remarked.
Trump continued: "Let's see what they accomplish over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
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On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the country would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned multinational contingent in the region to help maintain the ceasefire under Trump's plan.
"We are in command of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he declared talking at the start of a government session.
On Friday, the American diplomat indicated "a lot of countries" had volunteered to be involved in the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This seemed like a reference to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had vetoed the country's participation.
It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an agreement with Hamas.
Israel launched a armed operation 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 two hundred fifty-one additional persons as hostages.
At least 68,519 have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza from that time, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
