Egypt along with International Committee of the Red Cross Join Effort for Hostage Remains in Gaza Strip
Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to locate the bodies of hostages who perished captured during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel stated that the teams have been permitted to operate beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the area under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has transferred fifteen out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which mandates it to transfer all hostage bodies. The group said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
The former US president has warned the organization to begin returning the remains "promptly, or the other countries participating in this significant peace will take action".
An official representative indicated the crew from Egypt has been permitted to collaborate with the Red Cross to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation beyond the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" marks the boundary running along the north, south and eastern of Gaza that Israel pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.
Until now, Israeli authorities has not authorized the access of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.
The development will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to provide a proper burial.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of hostages.
Hamas does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - directly to the IDF, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and hands them on to the IDF.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.
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 reduced to rubble.
The group says it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.
It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.
On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that the organization knew where the bodies were.
"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the bodies of our captives," the spokesperson said.
The former president posted on his social media account on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not returned 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 do with their demilitarization," he remarked.
Trump continued: "We will observe what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
- Gaza children dying as they wait for Israel to permit evacuations
- The US Secretary of State states many countries prepared to join Gaza security force
- New images reveal Israeli control line further into Gaza than expected
On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced Israel would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned multinational contingent in the region to help maintain the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.
"We are in control of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding foreign troops that we will decide which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he said talking at the start of a government session.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of countries" had volunteered to be involved in the contingent - but noted Israel would have to be satisfied with participants.
This seemed like a reference to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israel had rejected the country's participation.
It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.
Israel initiated a military campaign in the territory in following the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one others as hostages.
No fewer than 68,519 have been killed in military actions in the region since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.