Egyptian authorities and Red Cross Participate in Search for Captive Bodies in Gaza
Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been granted permission to locate the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have confirmed.
The Israeli government announced that the teams have been allowed to operate past the so-called "demarcation line" in the region controlled by military personnel in Gaza.
The group has handed over fifteen out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage 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.
Donald Trump has cautions the organization to start return the remains "promptly, or the additional nations involved in this great peace will take action".
An Israeli spokesperson said the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the Red Cross to locate the remains, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the search past the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" indicates the border running along the northern, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israel pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.
Previously, Israel has not approved the access of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.
The news will be welcomed by family members, desperate to give them a proper burial.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been deeply engaged in the repatriation of captives.
The organization does not transfer its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but rather 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 intense bombardment by Israel, the United Nations estimates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been destroyed completely.
The group says it is making every effort to recover remains of captives, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of structures bombed out by the IDF in the region.
It is now working in coordination with the officials in Egypt.
On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that Hamas knew where the bodies were.
"If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our captives," the representative commented.
The former president shared on his social media account on Saturday that action would be taken if the remains of the hostages who died were not handed back promptly.
"A portion of the remains are difficult to access, but others they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Perhaps it has do with their demilitarization," he remarked.
Trump added: "We will observe what they accomplish over the next 48 hours. I am watching this with great attention."
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On the weekend, the Israeli leader said Israel would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed international force in Gaza to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.
"We are in control of our security, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that Israel will decide which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said speaking at the beginning of a government session.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "a lot of nations" had volunteered to be involved in the force - but noted Israeli authorities would have to be comfortable with participants.
This appeared to be a reference to Turkey, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the nation's participation.
It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be stationed without an agreement with the organization.
Israel launched a military campaign in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about twelve hundred people and took 251 additional persons as captives.
No fewer than 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in the region from that time, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.