Egyptian authorities along with International Committee of the Red Cross Join Effort for Captive Bodies in Gaza Strip
Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to locate the bodies of hostages who perished captured during the October 7th incidents, Israeli authorities have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel stated that the teams have been allowed to operate beyond the referred to as "demarcation line" in the region controlled by Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has transferred fifteen out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The organization stated it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
Donald Trump has cautions Hamas to start return the bodies "promptly, or the other countries participating in this significant peace will take action".
An Israeli spokesperson indicated the crew from Egypt has been authorized to work with the Red Cross to locate the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation beyond the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" marks the border running along the north, south and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not authorized the access of these crews.
Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of the resort town earlier this month.
The news will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to give them a dignified funeral.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been deeply engaged in the repatriation of hostages.
The organization does not hand over its captives - alive or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through Gaza and transfers them to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza territory is new.
After more than two years of heavy shelling by Israel, the United Nations calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been destroyed completely.
Hamas claims it is doing its best 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 coordinating with the officials in Egypt.
On Sunday, 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 recover the bodies of our captives," the spokesperson said.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that action would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not returned quickly.
"Some of the remains are hard to reach, but others they can return at present and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has do with their disarming," he remarked.
Trump added: "We will observe what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced the country would determine which international troops it would allow as part of a proposed international force in Gaza to help secure the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.
"We are in control of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that we will decide which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he declared talking at the start of a government session.
On Friday, the American diplomat said "numerous nations" had offered to be involved in the contingent - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This appeared to be a allusion to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israel had rejected the country's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.
The Israeli military launched a military campaign in Gaza in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 individuals and took 251 additional persons as captives.
No fewer than 68,519 have been killed in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.