Egyptian authorities along with International Committee of the Red Cross Participate in Effort for Captive Remains in Gaza Strip
Teams from Egypt and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the remains of deceased hostages taken during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel announced that the crews have been permitted to search past the referred to as "yellow line" in the region controlled by military personnel in the Gaza territory.
The group has handed over fifteen out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which mandates it to hand over all remains of captives. The organization stated it is now working together with officials in Egypt.
Donald Trump has cautions the organization to start return the remains "promptly, or the other countries involved in this significant peace will take action".
An official representative indicated the crew from Egypt has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to find the remains, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation beyond the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" marks the boundary running along the northern, southern and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israel pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
Until now, Israel has not authorized the access of these crews.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of the resort town in recent weeks.
The news will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to provide a dignified funeral.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the repatriation of captives.
Hamas does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is new.
After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israeli forces, the United Nations calculates that as much as 84% of the area has been reduced to rubble.
The group claims it is making every effort to recover remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the IDF in the region.
It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.
On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that the organization was aware of where the remains were.
"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our captives," the representative commented.
Trump shared on his social media account on Saturday that action would be implemented if the bodies of the hostages who died were not returned quickly.
"A portion of the bodies are difficult to access, but the rest they can return at present and, for some reason, 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 very closely."
- Gaza minors dying as they await Israel to enable evacuations
- The US Secretary of State states lots of countries willing to participate in the region's peacekeeping unit
- New images reveal demarcation zone further into the territory than anticipated
On Sunday, the Israeli leader said the country would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a planned international force in Gaza to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.
"We are in command of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that we will decide which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he said speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous countries" had offered to be involved in the force - but noted Israel would have to be comfortable with those taking part.
This seemed like a reference to Turkey, amid reports Israel had rejected the country's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be stationed without an understanding with the organization.
The Israeli military launched a military campaign in Gaza in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group killed about twelve hundred people and took 251 others as hostages.
No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been lost their lives in military actions in the region from that time, according to the area's Hamas-run health ministry.
