Egyptian authorities and International Committee of the Red Cross Participate in Effort for Captive Remains in Gaza
Units from Egyptian authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been granted permission to locate the remains of hostages who perished taken during the October 7th incidents, Israeli authorities have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel announced that the teams have been allowed to operate beyond the so-called "demarcation line" in the region under the control of Israeli forces in Gaza.
Hamas has transferred 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The group said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.
The former US president has cautions Hamas to start return the remains "quickly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will intervene".
An Israeli spokesperson said the crew from Egypt has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to find the remains, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the search past the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" indicates the boundary running along the north, southern and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the access of these crews.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the coastal city of the resort town earlier this month.
The development will be greeted positively by family members, desperate to give them a dignified funeral.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of hostages.
The organization does not transfer its captives - living or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.
But the entry of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israel, the United Nations calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas says it is doing its best to retrieve hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges locating them under debris of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.
It is now working in coordination with the officials in Egypt.
On Sunday, an official representative stated that the organization was aware of where the remains 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 Truth Social platform on Saturday that measures would be implemented if the remains of the deceased hostages were not handed back promptly.
"A portion of the bodies are difficult to access, but the rest they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their disarming," he said.
Trump continued: "We will observe what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
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On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned international force in the region to help maintain the truce under the former president's initiative.
"We are in control of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that we will determine which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he declared speaking at the beginning of a government session.
On Friday, the American diplomat said "numerous countries" had offered to be involved in the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This seemed like a reference to the Turkish government, amid reports Israeli officials had rejected the nation's involvement.
It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an agreement with Hamas.
The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about twelve hundred people and captured two hundred fifty-one additional persons as captives.
No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in Israeli attacks in the region since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.