Egypt and Red Cross Join Search for Hostage Bodies in Gaza
Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have verified.
The authorities in Israel stated that the teams have been allowed to search past the referred to as "yellow line" in the region under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.
The group has handed over 15 out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to transfer all remains of captives. The organization said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
Donald Trump has cautions Hamas to begin returning the remains "quickly, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action".
An Israeli spokesperson said the Egyptian team has been permitted to work with the Red Cross to locate the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation past the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" marks the boundary running along the northern, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israel pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.
Until now, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of these crews.
Egypt, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of the resort town in recent weeks.
The development will be welcomed by family members, eager to give them a proper burial.
The ICRC has already been heavily involved in the return of hostages.
The organization does not transfer its captives - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and hands them on to the IDF.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is new.
After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the UN estimates that as much as 84% of the area has been reduced to rubble.
The group says it is doing its best to recover hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges finding them under debris of buildings destroyed by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.
On the weekend, an official representative said that Hamas knew where the bodies were.
"If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to retrieve the bodies of our hostages," the spokesperson commented.
Trump posted on his social media account on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not returned promptly.
"Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return 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 next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On Sunday, the Israeli leader said Israel would determine which international troops it would allow as part of a proposed multinational contingent in the region to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.
"We are in command of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that we will decide which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will proceed," he declared speaking at the beginning of a government session.
On the end of the week, the American diplomat said "a lot of countries" had offered to be part of the force - but noted Israel would have to be satisfied with participants.
This appeared to be a allusion to the Turkish government, amid reports Israel had vetoed the nation's participation.
It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an understanding with Hamas.
Israel launched a armed operation in Gaza 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.
No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in military actions in Gaza from that time, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.