Egyptian authorities and Red Cross Participate in Effort for Hostage Remains in Gaza
Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to locate the remains of hostages who perished captured during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have verified.
The Israeli government announced that the teams have been allowed to search past the referred to as "yellow line" in the area controlled by military personnel in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has transferred 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The group stated it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
The former US president has warned the organization to start return the bodies "promptly, or the additional nations participating in this significant peace will intervene".
An official representative said the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to find the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles 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 first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Until now, Israeli authorities has not authorized the access of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of the resort town 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.
Hamas does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - straight 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 arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is new.
After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the UN calculates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas claims it is doing its best to recover hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges 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 put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the bodies of our hostages," the spokesperson commented.
The former president posted on his social media account on Saturday that measures would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not returned quickly.
"Some of the remains are hard to reach, but the rest they can return at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their demilitarization," he said.
He added: "Let's see what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
- Gaza children losing their lives as they await Israeli authorities to enable relocations
- The US Secretary of State states many countries willing to participate in the region's security force
- Recent photographs reveal Israeli control line deeper into Gaza than expected
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would decide which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed multinational contingent in Gaza to help maintain the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.
"We are in command of our security, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that Israel will decide which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said talking at the beginning of a government session.
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 satisfied with those taking part.
This seemed like a allusion to the Turkish government, 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.
The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in Gaza in following the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred individuals and took 251 others as hostages.
At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been lost their lives in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.