Egypt along with Red Cross Participate in Search for Captive Bodies in Gaza
Units from Egypt and the ICRC 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 permitted to operate beyond the so-called "demarcation line" in the region controlled by Israeli forces in Gaza.
The group has handed over 15 out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered truce agreement, which mandates it to transfer all remains of captives. The group said it is now coordinating with officials in Egypt.
Donald Trump has warned Hamas to start return the bodies "quickly, or the other countries participating in this significant peace will take action".
An official representative indicated the Egyptian team has been permitted to collaborate with the Red Cross to locate the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation beyond the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" indicates the boundary running along the northern, south and east of the Gaza territory that Israel pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry 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 ratified in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.
The development will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to give them a dignified funeral.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the return of captives.
Hamas 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 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 UN estimates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been reduced to rubble.
The group claims it is making every effort to retrieve remains of captives, but it encounters challenges finding them under debris of buildings destroyed 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 remains were.
"If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our captives," the spokesperson commented.
Trump shared on his social media account on Saturday that action would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not returned promptly.
"Some of the remains are hard to reach, but the rest they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their demilitarization," he remarked.
Trump added: "We will observe what they do over the coming two days. I am watching this very closely."
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On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a proposed international force in Gaza to help maintain the truce under the former president's initiative.
"We are in command of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding foreign troops that Israel will decide which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he declared speaking at the beginning of a government session.
On the end of the week, the American diplomat indicated "a lot of countries" had offered to be involved in the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be comfortable with those taking part.
This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid reports Israeli officials had vetoed the country's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be deployed without an agreement with Hamas.
Israel initiated a armed operation in the territory in following the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took two hundred fifty-one additional persons as hostages.
No fewer than 68,519 have been killed in military actions in the region from that time, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.
