Egypt and Red Cross Join Search for Captive Bodies in Gaza Strip
Units from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to locate the remains of deceased hostages taken during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have confirmed.
The Israeli government stated that the teams have been allowed to search past the so-called "demarcation line" in the region controlled by Israeli forces in Gaza.
The group has transferred 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which mandates it to hand over all remains of captives. The group said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
The former US president has cautions the organization to begin returning the bodies "quickly, or the additional nations involved in this great peace will take action".
An Israeli spokesperson said the Egyptian team has been permitted to work with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and vehicles for the search past the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" marks the boundary running along the north, southern and eastern of Gaza that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of these crews.
Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.
The news will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to give them a dignified funeral.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of captives.
The organization does not transfer its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through Gaza and hands them on to the IDF.
But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations estimates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
The group says it is making every effort to retrieve hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty finding them under rubble of structures bombed out by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.
On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that the organization knew where the remains were.
"If Hamas put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the bodies of our hostages," the representative commented.
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 promptly.
"A portion of the remains are hard to reach, but the rest they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he said.
Trump added: "Let's see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
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On the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a planned international force in the region to help secure the truce under the former president's initiative.
"We are in command of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will decide which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he declared talking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.
On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous countries" had volunteered to be involved in the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be comfortable with participants.
This appeared to be a reference to Turkey, amid reports Israel had vetoed the country's participation.
It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an understanding with Hamas.
The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in the territory in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about 1,200 people and captured 251 additional persons as hostages.
No fewer than 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in the region from that time, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.