Egypt along with Red Cross Participate in Search for Hostage Remains in Gaza Strip
Units from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for 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 search beyond the so-called "demarcation line" in the area under the control of military personnel in Gaza.
Hamas has handed over fifteen out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all hostage bodies. The group said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.
Donald Trump has cautions Hamas to begin returning the bodies "promptly, or the other countries involved in this significant peace will intervene".
An official representative said the Egyptian team has been permitted to work with the Red Cross to find the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation beyond the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" marks the boundary running along the north, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israel has not authorized the entry of these crews.
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 earlier this month.
The development will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to provide a proper burial.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of captives.
The organization does not transfer its captives - alive or deceased - directly to the IDF, but rather to the Red Cross, which in turn accompanies them through Gaza and transfers them to the Israeli military.
But the entry of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the UN estimates that as much as 84% of the territory has been destroyed completely.
Hamas claims it is making every effort to retrieve hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of structures destroyed by the IDF in Gaza.
It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.
On the weekend, an official representative stated that the organization knew where the bodies were.
"If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our hostages," the representative commented.
The former president posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that action would be taken if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not handed back quickly.
"Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can hand over now and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he said.
He added: "We will observe what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
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On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would decide which international troops it would permit as part of a proposed international force in the region to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.
"We are in command of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding foreign troops that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he said talking at the beginning of a government session.
On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "a lot of nations" had offered to be involved in the force - but added Israel would have to be satisfied with those taking part.
This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid reports Israel had vetoed the country's involvement.
It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be stationed without an understanding with Hamas.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one others as captives.
At least 68,519 have been killed in military actions in Gaza from that time, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
